<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />The Fed Fouls the Punch Bowl
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Well, that was interesting.
There&rsquo;s a saying on Wall Street about the Federal Reserve &ldquo;taking away the punch bowl&rdquo; &mdash; an alcoholic analogy for when the Fed does something to withdraw its monetary stimulus.
Yesterday Jerome Powell and crew didn&rsquo;t take away the punch bowl as much as they deposited a turd in it.
Little did we suspect how foreboding our words would be in yesterday&rsquo;s edition &mdash; when previewing the Fed&rsquo;s every-six-weeks policy proclamation&hellip;
<blockquote>&hellip; there&rsquo;s no drama about the decision itself: The benchmark fed funds rate will be cut another quarter percentage point to 4.5%.</blockquote>
<blockquote>But there might be a surprise included with the FOMC&rsquo;s economic forecasts for next year &mdash; or during Powell&rsquo;s press conference. With signs that inflation is accelerating, will he tamp down expectations for aggressive rate cuts in 2025?</blockquote>
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The answer was yes. The Fed signaled only two more rate cuts next year &mdash; down from four back in September.
After cutting the benchmark fed funds rate from 5.5% to 4.5% over the last three months, Fed chair Jerome Powell said, &ldquo;From here, it&rsquo;s a new phase, and we&rsquo;re going to be cautious about further cuts.&rdquo;
With that, the Fed knocked the living snot out of every asset class except the dollar and (curiously) oil.
The Dow Jones Industrials have slid for 10 straight days now. The last time that happened was late September 1974 &mdash; when Gerald Ford was only a few weeks into his presidency and Barry White topped the charts with &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe.&rdquo;
We&rsquo;ll conduct a full damage assessment of the markets &mdash; and take a look ahead &mdash; in Bullet No. 2.&nbsp;
But first, let&rsquo;s dive deeper into why Mr. Market reacted so badly to what the Fed did. There are four possibilities in play &mdash; and they&rsquo;re not mutually exclusive.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> No. 1: It took the Fed to make Wall Street wake up and realize inflation is not &ldquo;contained.&rdquo;
Of course, we&rsquo;ve been telling you for months that inflation isn&rsquo;t yet under control. Even the official inflation rate is <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/fallen-pharma-phenom#2">ticking higher again</a>.
And forgive us for harping on the historical record once more, but <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/declare-your-independence-from-inflation">the evidence is overwhelming</a>: Once inflation sails beyond the 5% level as it did in 2021&ndash;22, it takes a decade or longer to get back to &ldquo;normal&rdquo; 2% inflation.
But to hear the mainstream tell it, it&rsquo;s all about Trumpy-Trump-Trump.
The Financial Times says Powell &ldquo;acknowledged that some [Fed] officials had begun to include assumptions about Donald Trump&rsquo;s policies in their forecasts, a marked shift from his initial stance of avoiding speculation about what the next administration would do.
&ldquo;Some economists fear that the president-elect&rsquo;s plans for tariffs, mass deportations and tax cuts could lead to higher inflation, lower growth and more volatility, further complicating the Fed&rsquo;s task of finding a &lsquo;neutral&rsquo; rate that neither slows nor accelerates growth.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s not altogether wrong &mdash; but it&rsquo;s not the whole story. Again, inflationary forces are already at work that have nothing to do with Trump.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> No. 2: Wall Street is simply throwing a hissy fit because the Fed is taking away the proverbial punch bowl.
Wall Street has become addicted to the Fed&rsquo;s EZ money ever since the 2008 financial crisis. Not coincidentally, stocks have been in a secular (long-term) bull market since March 2009.
Still, Wall Street has shaken off Fed disappointments before. Going into this year, the widespread expectation was the Fed would cut rates six times during 2024, starting in the spring. Instead the Fed waited until the fall and cut only four times &mdash; to be precise, one super-sized cut in September and two smaller cuts since.
That disappointment notwithstanding, the stock market marched higher all year without even a 10% correction. Even after yesterday&rsquo;s drop, the S&amp;P 500 is up 25% year-to-date.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> No. 3: Wall Street is freaking out because it realizes the Fed doesn&rsquo;t know what it&rsquo;s doing.
This is your editor&rsquo;s preferred explanation &mdash; but hey, I&rsquo;m in the &ldquo;End the Fed&rdquo; crowd.
Hear me out, though: How can Jerome Powell breezily declare the Fed is entering a &ldquo;new phase&rdquo; when the previous one lasted only three months?
Looking at the history of the fed funds rate so far this century, slowing the rate-cut cycle now would be a huge anomaly&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2GPrnAfvJeP79ZOWNnAaSY/0cc98d8e47a18359b2fe683b5e4f96a6/FMF_5Bullets_Chart_1219.png" alt="new phase" width="540px" />
Worse, slowing the rate-cut cycle now suggests that Powell and crew realize perhaps it was a mistake to start it in the first place.
This wouldn&rsquo;t be the first time it&rsquo;s dawned on Mr. Market that the Fed is neither omniscient nor infallible. Or that Fed leaders are simply making it up as they go along. But every time feels like the first time.
As Paradigm&rsquo;s macro maven Jim Rickards sees it, the Fed is in reaction mode &mdash; waiting to see the job numbers and inflation numbers as the next rate decision looms in late January. Will the Fed pause in the face of resurgent inflation &mdash; or will it cut again because the job market is deteriorating, signaling an impending recession?
&ldquo;This kind of data dependence is revealing,&rdquo; says Jim, &ldquo;because it shows the Fed is following markets and not leading them.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s bad news for investors because if the Fed were leading the economy, they would get ahead of the coming recession. They&rsquo;re not doing either.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> No. 4: Wall Street got too far out over its skis; if it weren&rsquo;t the Fed, something else would have knocked down the stock market.
This comes back to something Paradigm chart hound Greg Guenthner mentioned in Monday&rsquo;s edition: The market hasn&rsquo;t had a 10% pullback since October 2023. That&rsquo;s hardly unprecedented, but it is unusual.
When the market rises so relentlessly for so long, it becomes vulnerable to any negative catalyst. If it weren&rsquo;t the Fed now, it would be a surprise job number or a bad earnings report from Nvidia later.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been dealing with bad breadth and plenty of sneaky downside action for weeks,&rdquo; Greg writes his Trading Desk readers this morning. &ldquo;But Powell gave the herd what it wanted: an excuse to sell.&rdquo;
So those are your four possibilities behind yesterday&rsquo;s market dump. Again, they might have some overlap.
Now let&rsquo;s move on to the damage assessment and see what might happen from here&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />The Numbers (and Some Perspective)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Not surprisingly, the major stock averages are rebounding today. The Dow is on track to break that 10-day losing streak.
That said, it&rsquo;s not a robust rebound. The Dow lost 1,100 points yesterday and at last check has recovered only 161 of them. The S&amp;P 500 is clambering its way back toward 5,900. The Nasdaq is back above 19,400.
Perspective: The S&amp;P is more or less bouncing off its 50-day moving average. It&rsquo;s only 3.2% below its all-time high set on Dec. 6, not even two weeks ago. A short-term bear market &mdash; meaning a 20% drop from the high &mdash; would put the S&amp;P at 4,872. That number was an all-time high less than a year ago!
&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s possible we do get a strong snapback into early January,&rdquo; says the aforementioned Greg Guenthner. &ldquo;From there&hellip; who knows? I&rsquo;m going to stay as nimble as possible, riding whatever bounce we get, then reassessing during the middle of next month as the seasonality tailwinds begin to dry up.&rdquo;
Beyond stocks, bonds also got clobbered yesterday, and that punishment is carrying into today &mdash; prices down, yields up. The yield on a 10-year Treasury note is up to 4.57%, the highest since Memorial Day.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Precious metals got the beat-down, too. The spot price of gold tumbled from $2,635 before the Fed announcement to nearly $2,580, then rebounded over $2,620 this morning. At last check, the bid is back to $2,594. Still, colleague Sean Ring at The Rude Awakening says that rebound is constructive and suggests an eventual rally back to record levels near $2,800.
Again, perspective &mdash; today&rsquo;s price of $2,594 was a record high only three months ago!
Silver, unfortunately, isn&rsquo;t demonstrating the same resilience &mdash; $30.30 pre-Fed, $28.82 now. Ouch.
Some of that weakness in precious metals can be chalked up to strength in the dollar relative to other major currencies: The U.S. dollar index has leaped to 108.26 &mdash; a level last seen in the autumn of 2022.
Bitcoin&rsquo;s been knocked down to barely $100,000 &mdash; although that round number seems to be holding.
As mentioned above, crude was oddly resilient in the face of the Fed and the strong dollar: It&rsquo;s still holding the line on $70 a barrel this morning. But that action might be meaningless long-term; oil is still smack in the midpoint of its trading range the last couple of months.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Market Meltdown, Government Shutdown?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Hard to say, but maybe the market&rsquo;s rebound today would be stronger were it not for the sudden threat of a &ldquo;partial government shutdown.&rdquo;
Not that there&rsquo;s anything wrong with that&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/17VC87EErgCgfj2oiP7ACY/d8724c41626aef627291bf443bfe9ca7/BeingLibertarian.png" alt="being libertarian" width="350px" />
Ordinarily, the markets shake it off whenever this happens. But this time it came out of the blue.
With business scheduled to wrap up for the year tomorrow, Congress was on track to pass a &ldquo;continuing resolution&rdquo; funding the government through mid-March.
A &ldquo;CR&rdquo; is what congresscriters do these days in lieu of passing an honest-to-God budget &mdash; keeping spending on autopilot while throwing in &ldquo;a variety of unrelated legislation they want to clear in the final days of the current session of Congress,&rdquo; as Politico puts it.
Sure, a few Freedom Caucus Republicans squawk about this &ldquo;Christmas tree&rdquo; bill &mdash; this year&rsquo;s model ran to 1,547 pages &mdash; but the business-as-usual crowd in both parties was set to pass it to avoid a partial shutdown on Saturday.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> And then, after the markets closed yesterday afternoon, Donald Trump blew the whole thing up.
&ldquo;We should pass a streamlined spending bill,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling.&rdquo;
Even before Trump&rsquo;s statement, Elon Musk was badgering congress members on X to reject the CR.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2hOVSZErOw5dPBzSlFZ1V4/71a7058a65dbb2f7dd25e7486703a421/ElonTweet.png" alt="trump tweet" width="540px" />
&ldquo;Trump and Musk Unleash a New Kind of Chaos In Washington,&rdquo; says the oh-so-predictable CNN headline.
We&rsquo;re not really sure what Trump wants to see in this bill &mdash; for that matter, he&rsquo;s probably not sure himself &mdash; but it&rsquo;s fun to watch him give ulcers to all the usual suspects including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who promised to end this sort of nonsense when he won the job.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Tax Relief for Americans Overseas?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> When the new Congress convenes next year, one agenda item might be tax relief for Americans overseas.
As we mention now and then, the United States is one of only two countries on the face of the Earth that taxes your income no matter where you earned it. (The other is the northern African state of Eritrea.)
The result is that oftentimes, American expats pay taxes to two countries &mdash; the one where they&rsquo;re living, and the United States.
The burden is especially outrageous for &ldquo;accidental Americans&rdquo; who happened to be born in this country while their parents were here for a visit or a temporary work assignment.
The only way you can get out from under this obligation is to give up your U.S. citizenship. About 4,000 Americans have done so this year alone. (The aforementioned Sean Ring did so back in 2011; he holds Italian and U.K. citizenship now.)
On the campaign trail this fall, Donald Trump promised to remedy this injustice. And a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee is working up legislation to make it happen.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s fundamental unfairness in the way this is currently done,&rdquo; Rep. Darin LaHood tells The Wall Street Journal &mdash; &ldquo;so it&rsquo;s exposing that, reminding people this is being done and letting people know there&rsquo;s a clear remedy.&rdquo;
We hope the legislation passes &mdash; but real relief won&rsquo;t come until there&rsquo;s an overhaul or repeal of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2010. After passage of FATCA, many foreign banks closed the accounts of their U.S. customers; compliance with IRS reporting requirements was just too onerous.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Final Thoughts
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In light of the day&rsquo;s news, we conclude with an oldie but goodie&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/77ZjF7qc2NZT2lwAmbHnxc/591339dbdac1c798d2cb3f137be7d200/FedReserve.png" alt="Fed Reserve" width="350px" />
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 2179827025

Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

There’s a saying on Wall Street about the Federal Reserve “taking away the punch bowl” — an alcoholic analogy for when the Fed withdraws its monetary stimulus.

Four Reasons for Yesterday’s Dump

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />A Match Made in Heaven
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In a groundbreaking fusion of artificial intelligence and meteorology, Google DeepMind's GenCast is revolutionizing weather prediction.
This AI-powered model is not just matching current forecasting systems &mdash; it's surpassing them with remarkable consistency.
GenCast, trained on nearly four decades of historical weather data, demonstrates an extraordinary 97% accuracy rate compared with the current gold standard, the European ensemble forecast (ENS) system.
What sets GenCast apart is its ability to generate probabilistic forecasts, offering a spectrum of potential weather scenarios with associated likelihoods, much like how large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT process information.

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2tJXOYwnk4S3JLJC12cYTm/71fd29d00e72472fd3cea428f891c870/weather.png" width="540px" />

Source: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/goyashy.ai/reel/DDWsPMCy1G2/">Instagram</a>
The model's prowess extends beyond day-to-day weather predictions. GenCast excels in forecasting wind conditions and tracking the paths of tropical hurricanes and cyclones, a capability that could prove invaluable for natural disaster preparedness and potentially save thousands of lives annually
GenCast, however, is not without limitations: Its reliance on historical data, for instance, may lead to inaccuracies when applied to future climate scenarios.
Additionally, the model still grapples with certain aspects of forecasting, such as upper troposphere conditions and hurricane-intensity predictions.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Importantly, GenCast is designed to complement &mdash; not replace &mdash; human expertise. 
As DeepMind researcher Ilan Price notes: &ldquo;There [are] actual meteorological experts that are looking at the forecast, making judgment calls and looking at additional data if they don't trust a particular forecast.&rdquo;
Moving forward, DeepMind's ambition to explore predictions based solely on observational data could further revolutionize weather forecasting. This innovation isn't occurring in isolation; other tech giants like Nvidia and Huawei are also applying AI to weather prediction, signaling a new era in meteorological science.
The partnership between AI and weather forecasting, exemplified by GenCast, marks a significant leap forward in our ability to understand and predict weather phenomena. As these technologies continue to evolve, we can anticipate more accurate, timely and potentially lifesaving weather forecasts.
The future of meteorology is here, and it's powered by artificial intelligence.
[UPDATE: A recent announcement from AI leader Nvidia has flown under-the-radar this week&hellip; But it could be the key to a 100X return over the next year and beyond.
Coupled with Trump&rsquo;s bullish crypto and tech-stock sentiment, this legendary investor says you should absolutely be aware of <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2396726">this market-moving opportunity.</a>
No, Nvidia is not the targeted company; instead, it&rsquo;s a virtual unknown that NVDA needs in order to survive.
And all the details can be found right here in this <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2396726">Urgent Account Message.</a>]
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Trump&rsquo;s Favorite Whipping Boy
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Donald Trump&rsquo;s history of haranguing Fed Chair Jerome Powell has raised questions about Powell&rsquo;s future at the central bank. 
Despite Trump's campaign rhetoric suggesting he would fire Powell, the reality is more complex. &ldquo;No president has ever fired a Fed chair,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s macro authority Jim Rickards. He adds, &ldquo;It's not even clear if that's legal.&rdquo;
For his part, Powell says he does not believe Trump has that power and he would not step down voluntarily before his term ends in 2026. In a recent interview, Trump seems to soften his stance when questioned about replacing Powell, saying: &ldquo;No, I don't think so. I don't see it.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Still, there&rsquo;s good reason for Trump to keep Powell around,&rdquo; Jim says. &ldquo;Whatever the long-term results of Trump&rsquo;s economic policies, it&rsquo;s likely the short-term results could be rocky.
&ldquo;We may be in for a recession in early 2025,&rdquo; he continues. &ldquo;The Trump White House could simply blame Powell for the bad news (whether he deserves the blame or not) and avoid responsibility, at least for a while&hellip; Trump gets to avoid controversy and keep Powell around as a convenient punching bag.
&ldquo;The irony would be if Powell resigned early of his own accord and left Trump holding the bag for whatever economic turmoil we may face,&rdquo; Jim concludes. &ldquo;As they say, two can play.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> In the meantime, markets await the latest policy proclamation from Powell and the Fed&rsquo;s Open Market Committee. It&rsquo;s due for release at 2:00 p.m. EST.
As mentioned yesterday, there&rsquo;s no drama about the decision itself: The benchmark fed funds rate will be cut another quarter percentage point to 4.5%.
But there might be a surprise included with the FOMC&rsquo;s economic forecasts for next year &mdash; or during Powell&rsquo;s press conference. With signs that inflation is accelerating, will he tamp down expectations for aggressive rate cuts in 2025? We&rsquo;ll follow up tomorrow with Jim Rickards&rsquo; assistance.
Until the decision, markets are treading water as they often do on these Fed Wednesdays. All the major U.S. stock indexes are in the green &mdash; but not dramatically, with the S&amp;P 500 up less than a quarter percent at 6,062.
Precious metals continue losing ground with gold at $2,636 and silver at $30.15. Crude is back above $70. Bitcoin is back below $105,000.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Two Key Dates on Trump&rsquo;s Calendar
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />As President-elect Trump prepares to take office on Jan. 20, 2025, two key events loom large on the calendar in the five days leading up to Inauguration Day.
On Jan. 15, the contract extension between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and port employers is set to expire, potentially triggering a major dockworkers' strike.
Trump has thrown his support behind the union, meeting with ILA leaders and expressing concern over the threat of automation to American jobs.
In a social media post, Trump claims to have &ldquo;studied automation,&rdquo; indicating the cost savings from automation do not justify the harm caused to dockworkers.
Just four days later &mdash; on Jan. 19, 2025 &mdash; a congressional ban on TikTok is scheduled to go into effect unless the app&rsquo;s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells TikTok to a non-Chinese owner.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> In a somewhat surprising move, TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
Trump, who tried to ban the social media platform during his first term in office, now says he has a &ldquo;warm spot&rdquo; (ew) for TikTok &mdash; particularly since he believes the platform rocked the vote for Team Trump this election season.
Together, these two dates pose immense challenges for Trump. (And unless we&rsquo;re missing something, these events are not examples of Biden &ldquo;Trump-proofing&rdquo; the president-elect&rsquo;s early days in office&hellip; Unless Biden was really playing the loooong game.)
The potential port strike could disrupt supply chains, impacting the economy for months, possibly years, while the TikTok ban raises questions about national security and free speech.
But Trump&rsquo;s stance on both matters seems to have evolved since his first term, reflecting the balance his administration must strike between &ldquo;America first&rdquo; policies and the hard realities of global trade and technology.
As his inauguration approaches, how Trump navigates these pressing issues could set the tone for his second term and have far-reaching consequences for American workers, consumers and the tech industry.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />A Warning From Year 2000
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to know that every investor has different goals and time horizons,&rdquo; says Paradigm editor Davis Wilson at The Million Mission. &ldquo;And [three] investor types operate daily in the stock market.&rdquo;
For instance: &ldquo;How much should you pay for Tesla (TSLA) stock today?&rdquo; Davis asks. &ldquo;The answer depends on one important factor &mdash; time horizon.
<ol>
<li>If you&rsquo;re a long-term investor, the smart price to pay can be determined by discounting cash flows in Microsoft Excel. (Easier said than done.)</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>If you&rsquo;re looking to cash out in one year, pay attention to Tesla&rsquo;s product sales cycles and do your best to predict if we&rsquo;ll have a bear market within the year.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>If you&rsquo;re a day trader, the answer is who cares what price you pay! You&rsquo;re just trying to make a few dollars before dinner, and that can be done at any price.</li>
</ol>
&ldquo;Whereas Tesla&rsquo;s current $475 stock price may look ridiculously expensive to one investor, a different investor may be willing to buy at these prices.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />According to Davis, it&rsquo;s time to break glass in case of emergency &ldquo;when too many investors [are] the day-trader type. 
&ldquo;We saw this with Cisco Systems (CSCO) in 2000,&rdquo; he notes. &ldquo;The stock began the year 1999 trading around $20. Within 14 months, the stock was $80.
&ldquo;Cisco was trading at a 200X price-earnings ratio and a 40X price-to-sales ratio. Yet people continued to buy the stock at higher and higher prices.
&ldquo;The reason was that many investors were characterized as day traders at the time,&rdquo; Davis says. &ldquo;These traders didn&rsquo;t care about fundamentals, P/E ratios, growth prospects, etc.&rdquo; Their goal? &ldquo;To make a few dollars before dinner&hellip;
&ldquo;This is how the dot-com bubble began &mdash; when the makeup of investors shifted more in favor of short-term traders vs. long-term investors.
&ldquo;Eventually the bubble burst, wiping out over $6 trillion of household wealth,&rdquo; he says.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;I mention this today because there seems to be a subset of companies whose stock prices are controlled by short-term traders,&rdquo; says Davis.
&ldquo;You know the names: MicroStrategy, SoundHound AI, Robinhood and I&rsquo;m even throwing Tesla into this category. Regardless of price, these stocks continue to get bought.
&ldquo;In just over one month, MicroStrategy is up nearly 40%,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;SoundHound AI has more than doubled. Tesla and Robinhood are moving higher because of hype.
&ldquo;And because of Elon Musk&rsquo;s newfound friendship with Donald Trump&hellip; which is apparently worth an additional $400 billion in market cap in one month.
&ldquo;These are not fundamentally driven moves,&rdquo; Davis recaps. &ldquo;These prices are rising because short-term traders are controlling prices.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve seen this playbook before,&rdquo; he warns. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not calling the top yet. But I believe this is the biggest risk to the stock market.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Majoring in Minors: SF Edition
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />San Francisco's bureaucratic brilliance strikes again! 
In a stunning display of misplaced municipal priorities, the city&rsquo;s Department of Public Works has been obsessing over tiny cafe tables (and potted cacti!) while ignoring a treacherously uneven sidewalk.
The saga begins with Lisa Church, a long-time Nob Hill resident who spent four years filing 311 complaints about a sidewalk near 1360 Taylor St.&hellip;

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1eUJ2Y0i5rH85f8Nwb7c6w/01ed8e85cd898a8128bf695da2f57539/Street-priorities.png" width="540px" />

Courtesy: X, @emily_hoeven
The DPW swooped into action... but not for the dangerous sidewalk. 
No, they were laser-focused on Taylor Street&rsquo;s Cafe Isabella, demanding the removal of &ldquo;unpermitted&rdquo; outdoor tables as well as two potted cacti that had flanked the cafe&rsquo;s doorway for 20 years.
Meanwhile, Nob Hill resident 74-year-old Jane Oleson, tells The San Francisco Chronicle that the sidewalk was like an &ldquo;obstacle course.&rdquo; Another local reports a sprained ankle last year while walking her dog in the area.
The city's response? Complaints were mysteriously &ldquo;closed&rdquo; despite the sidewalk remaining untouched. It took journalist Emily Hoeven&rsquo;s inquiry to finally spark action, with the DPW suddenly deciding maybe a sidewalk that could hospitalize residents might be worth fixing.
But what does one expect from a city that spends a half-million dollars on <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2022/08/18/everything-changes-on-sept-15/#435">designer trash cans?</a> (Already graffitied and derelict, by the way.)
Chalk it up to another case of urban absurdity this year.
Happy Wednesday! We&rsquo;ll be back with another round of 5 Bullets tomorrow&hellip;
Best regards,
Emily Clancy Associate editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 178550741

In a groundbreaking fusion of artificial intelligence and meteorology, Google DeepMind's GenCast is revolutionizing weather prediction.

Cloudy With a Chance of AI

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />&ldquo;If You Want to Export To America, You Must Invest In America&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />OK, we&rsquo;re filing this one away for future reference&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/zwBvHkqUSOrDvlTXrB5uF/de5cc9b003c2d0dde09e28d07a3af1e0/CamiloTweet.png" alt="Camilo Tweet" width="540px" />
(By the way, I&rsquo;m seeing the exact same wording on tweets posted by several users at X. Bots much?)
Japanese tech billionaire Masayoshi Son &mdash; CEO of SoftBank Group &mdash; paid a call on Donald Trump yesterday at Mar-a-Lago. He promised to invest $100 billion in the United States over four years, creating 100,000 jobs in data centers, semiconductors and energy.
&ldquo;Masa,&rdquo; as he&rsquo;s known in Japan, has a mixed reputation for his business prowess &mdash; &ldquo;a colorful character known as much for his major flops as his big accomplishments,&rdquo; the BBC describes him diplomatically.
Over the years his major investments in the United States have included Uber, T-Mobile and Nvidia.
But his most infamous U.S. investment was WeWork &mdash; the startup that tried to &ldquo;disrupt&rdquo; the business of subleasing office space by&hellip; well, creating an app with which you could sublease office space. According to a 2023 Business Insider article, SoftBank&rsquo;s losses on WeWork total $14.4 billion and counting.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Anyway, the Masa photo op yesterday underscores what&rsquo;s been advertised as the second Trump administration&rsquo;s approach to trade.
If you were to sum it up in a catchphrase, it&rsquo;s this: If countries want to export to America, they must invest in America.
&ldquo;Tariffs are two things if you look at it," Trump told Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait in October. "No. 1 is for protection of the companies that we have here, and the new companies that will move in because we're going to have thousands of companies coming into this country.
"The higher the tariff,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States and build a factory in the United States, so it doesn't have to pay the tariff.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The model here, many pundits and observers tell us, is the treatment the Reagan administration gave Japan in the 1980s.
As you&rsquo;ll recall if you were around then, Japanese automakers were eating Detroit&rsquo;s lunch with cars that were better built and more responsive to American consumers&rsquo; needs.
A Reagan-era official named Robert Lighthizer drove a hard bargain &mdash; jacking up tariffs on Tokyo until Tokyo cried uncle. As a result, Hondas began to be built in Ohio, Toyotas in Kentucky, Nissans in Tennessee.
Lighthizer returned to Washington as U.S. trade representative during Trump&rsquo;s first term. He won&rsquo;t be around for a second term; he was angling for treasury secretary but that job went to Wall Street veteran Scott Bessent instead.
But Lighthizer has plenty of acolytes who will be in the second Trump administration &mdash; people who share his worldview and know his playbook.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Still&hellip; how useful is the playbook now compared with the Reagan years?
The trading partner with whom Washington had the biggest beef then was Japan &mdash; an ally.
The trading partner with whom Washington has the biggest beef now is China &mdash; which few call an ally and many inside the Beltway consider an adversary.
In Washington these days, everything China does is viewed through the lens of &ldquo;national security.&rdquo; Every technology and every industry is considered potentially &ldquo;dual use&rdquo; &mdash; with both civilian and military implications.
So how is &ldquo;If you want to export to America you have to invest in America&rdquo; supposed to work now?
Let&rsquo;s say one day Trump follows through on his campaign promise to slap a 60% tariff on all Chinese exports to the United States.
And let&rsquo;s say the next day, Chinese President Xi Jinping strides before the cameras&hellip;
<blockquote>Yes, Mr. Trump. I see the light. I see the error of our ways. Effective today, I will marshal the resources of my nation&rsquo;s mighty industries to build 50 new gleaming factories in each of your 50 states.</blockquote>
Well, you know what the reaction would be the day after that in Washington, right?
<blockquote>NOOOO! What&rsquo;s his hidden agenda?! It&rsquo;s a Trojan Horse!</blockquote>
And that reaction wouldn&rsquo;t just come from Team MAGA. Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans would say the same thing.
So then what?
No, your editor doesn&rsquo;t have an answer to that question. But we&rsquo;re raising it today because no one else is. And the answers that emerge over the next four years will be market-moving. We&rsquo;ll aim to keep you ahead of the curve, because there will be investing opportunities to emerge from the chaos.
(Oh, and we&rsquo;ll also keep track of Masa&rsquo;s promise of $100 billion in investment and 100,000 jobs.)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> A brief postscript: Come to think of it, even allies aren&rsquo;t always welcome to invest in America.
Both Trump and Joe Biden oppose the bid by Japan&rsquo;s Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel.
Nippon Steel promises to plow $2.7 billion into U.S. Steel&rsquo;s archaic and decrepit American operations.
That&rsquo;s not chump change: Barron&rsquo;s says it amounts to two years of U.S. Steel&rsquo;s operating profits. U.S. Steel says without an infusion of Nippon Steel&rsquo;s cash, it might have to close factories in Pennsylvania.
But it seems no amount of money is good enough for Washington in this instance.
The Treasury Department panel that reviews foreign acquisitions for national-security concerns has to make a decision on the deal by this Sunday.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />The Fed Must Preserve Its Credibility
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />So&hellip; remind me why the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates again?
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3YbFrHjeYHgcazmFH31VX2/51eeeaafea5d92b8f1346ac3d58429a5/CharlieTweet.png" alt="Charlie Tweet" width="540px" />
Starting today, the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s Open Market Committee is gathered in Washington for one of its two-day policy-setting meetings.
At the conclusion of the process tomorrow afternoon, Jerome Powell and crew will cut the fed funds rate another quarter percentage point to 4.5%. For perspective, it was 5.5% before the Fed embarked on its current rate-cutting cycle in September.
Going back more than 40 years, the current rate-cutting cycle is unique in that long-term interest rates have responded by rising.
Usually, longer-term rates like the 10-year Treasury note fall in sympathy with short-term rates controlled by the Fed. And it&rsquo;s those longer-term rates that determine the rates consumers pay for things like mortgages. But go figure: A 30-year fixed that was 6.1% when the Fed began cutting rates three months ago is now 6.6%.
It&rsquo;s not normal by recent standards. It suggests the bond market is sniffing out a resurgence in inflation during 2025 &mdash; something the official inflation numbers are <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/fallen-pharma-phenom#2">already hinting at</a>.
But the Fed can&rsquo;t very well start a rate-cutting cycle and then abort it only three months later. That wouldn&rsquo;t be good for the Fed&rsquo;s precious credibility.
So&hellip; a rate cut tomorrow is in the bag. And Paradigm macro maven Jim Rickards says right now, another cut at the next meeting in late January is &ldquo;the most likely outcome&rdquo; &mdash; especially if there&rsquo;s any sign of inflation stabilizing.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Going into the Fed meeting, traders are chewing on two economic numbers out this morning &mdash; neither one of them good.
<ul>
<li>Retail sales jumped 0.7% in November, more than expected. But the number is severely skewed by a leap in auto sales, likely the result of folks who had to replace their cars destroyed by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. If you back out auto sales, the jump is only 0.2%, in contrast with Wall Street&rsquo;s expectation for 0.4%</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Industrial production fell 0.1% in November. Oops, the &ldquo;expert consensus&rdquo; was looking for a 0.3% increase. Manufacturing grew less than expected; mining/energy production fell outright, and so did utility output. (So much for the &ldquo;rebound&rdquo; from the hurricanes and the Boeing strike.) All told, 76.8% of U.S. industrial capacity was in use last month &mdash; the lowest since the spring of 2021 and well below the long-term average of 79.7%.</li>
</ul>
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Whether it&rsquo;s the punk economic numbers or something else, nearly every asset class is in the red today.
The Dow is taking the biggest hit among the major U.S. stock indexes &mdash; down two-thirds of a percent at last check. CNBC informs us that the Dow is &ldquo;poised for its first nine-day losing streak since the &rsquo;70s.&rdquo;
Isn&rsquo;t Big Data wonderful, serving up utterly useless factoids like this? You&rsquo;d hardly guess from that headline that the Dow is down all of 3.5% from a record high over those nine trading days.
The Nasdaq and the S&amp;P 500 are holding up better, each down about a half percent.
Bitcoin took a run at $108,000 but at last check is back to $106,225.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />The Case for Intel (Even Now)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Intel is still a big value at current prices,&rdquo; says Paradigm tech specialist Ray Blanco.
Ray is among several members of our team who&rsquo;ve been bullish on INTC all year &mdash; even as its share price has been steadily cut in half, and then some.
As we mentioned briefly at the start of the month, CEO Pat Gelsinger &ldquo;got quit&rdquo; &mdash; abruptly announcing his retirement a little less than four years into his attempted turnaround. Ironically, perhaps, the news has sent the share price still lower.
But Ray says two capable replacements are under consideration &mdash; Marvell Technology CEO Matt Murphy and semiconductor veteran Lip-Bu Tan. &ldquo;Both bring valuable expertise that could help advance Intel's transformation,&rdquo; says Ray.
&ldquo;The thesis for Intel remains intact despite the recent turmoil. At a current valuation of around $89 billion, Intel represents a strategic American asset trading at a big discount to its potential value.&rdquo;
For one thing, Intel is set to collect $7.86 billion in taxpayer subsidies thanks to the CHIPS Act of 2022 &mdash; plenty of resources to upgrade its fabrication plants.
&ldquo;The company's distributed network of American fabs remains a unique strategic advantage that single-location manufacturers cannot match,&rdquo; Ray goes on. &ldquo;I believe the board's apparent retreat from Gelsinger's vision is concerning but unlikely to derail Intel's ultimate foundry ambitions.
&ldquo;The geopolitical necessity for domestic advanced chip manufacturing grows stronger as tensions with China increase. Intel remains the West's best hope for achieving semiconductor manufacturing independence at leading-edge nodes.
&ldquo;While Gelsinger's departure introduces new execution risks, Intel's stock price of around $20 fails to reflect the company's strategic importance and potential.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />The Only Way a Ukraine Ceasefire Happens
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The commodity complex is showing little reaction to the latest provocation in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Ukraine is claiming responsibility for the killing of a Russian general, Igor Kirillov. He was outside an apartment building in Moscow when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely.
But there&rsquo;s no safe-haven response to be seen in the markets: Precious metals are sinking further into the doldrums as the dollar remains strong; gold is down to $2,639 and silver to $30.31. Crude has tumbled back below $70.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The killing comes at a delicate moment for Washington&rsquo;s involvement in the war &mdash; 35 days before Inauguration Day.
As you might have heard, Donald Trump has called for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
&ldquo;The manner in which Trump did this was interesting,&rdquo; Jim Rickards writes to his Strategic Intelligence readers.
&ldquo;In an interview, he referred first to the fall of Assad in Syria and the fact that Russia had been Assad&rsquo;s biggest supporter alongside Iran. That much is true. Then Trump went further and said Russia&rsquo;s loss in Syria combined with huge losses in Ukraine would drive Russia to seek peace and set the stage for a Trump-initiated ceasefire.
&ldquo;That shows Trump has badly misread the situation.&rdquo;
Jim says Trump has little negotiating power. Russian losses pale in comparison with Ukrainian losses, and Russia&rsquo;s economy is holding up fine &mdash; Western sanctions notwithstanding. &ldquo;A ceasefire is possible,&rdquo; Jim allows &mdash; &ldquo;but only on Russian terms.&rdquo;
&ldquo;The concern now,&rdquo; he continues, &ldquo;is that Trump has been taken in by the warmongers in Washington, London and Paris and imagines that Russia is dealing from a position of weakness. They&rsquo;re not. Let&rsquo;s hope that Trump quickly wakes up to the realities on the ground and does not get sucked into another endless war.&rdquo;
That said, there&rsquo;s something encouraging on the &ldquo;endless war&rdquo; front &mdash; which brings us to Bullet No. 5&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Comic Relief
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Sometimes it&rsquo;s not what&rsquo;s being said, but who&rsquo;s saying it&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1WXp50AbBa9gdWmRJ4pV4y/5626dc458a0450a2ba905539f94e642a/ElonTweet.png" alt="elon tweet" width="540px" />
One wonders if Elon Musk is whispering something similar in Donald Trump&rsquo;s ear &mdash; a counterweight to Trump&rsquo;s many advisers eager for regime change in Tehran. We can only hope&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

5 bullets hero USA America trade war economy conflict tax business finance

shutterstock 1400822942

In summary, the second Trump administration’s approach to trade: If countries want to export to America, they must invest in America.

Export to America, Invest in America

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Snapback Odds Are Strong
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />What if Wednesday&rsquo;s mini-crash had nothing at all to do with the Federal Reserve?
I know &mdash; sounds crazy, right?
But we kinda-sorta said as much yesterday in our initial attempt to peel the onion. Recall the four possibilities we said were in play&hellip;
<ol>
<li>It took the Fed to make Wall Street wake up and realize inflation is not &ldquo;contained&rdquo;</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li value="2">Wall Street is simply throwing a hissy fit because the Fed is taking away the proverbial punch bowl</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li value="3">Wall Street is freaking out because it realizes the Fed doesn&rsquo;t know what it&rsquo;s doing</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li value="4">Wall Street got too far out over its skis; if it weren&rsquo;t the Fed, something else would have knocked down the stock market.</li>
</ol>
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Paradigm trading pro and hedge fund veteran Enrique Abeyta is all-in on No. 4.
&ldquo;Big moves like this rarely happen because of the news,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They happen when traders shift their positions &mdash; and that&rsquo;s where opportunity lies for you.&rdquo;
We&rsquo;ll get to the opportunity soon enough. But first, let&rsquo;s unpack that shifting-positions thing.
Even before Wednesday, December had already been a lousy month for the Dow Industrials and the equal-weighted S&amp;P 500. That&rsquo;s a version of the S&amp;P in which all 500 stocks make up 0.25% of the index &mdash; as opposed to the usual top-heavy construction in which Apple makes up 7.6% of the index, Microsoft 6.5% and so on.
&ldquo;Coming into December &mdash; and after the re-election of Donald Trump &mdash; the market had risen relentlessly for months,&rdquo; Enrique writes in our sister e-letter Truth &amp; Trends. &ldquo;It was clear the stock market indices were very extended.&rdquo;
For the &ldquo;regular&rdquo; S&amp;P 500, it was up, up, up since a scare in early August &mdash; an episode widely attributed to another interest-rate shock, that time from the Bank of Japan.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6HmoPG6I1jPzW4KmnLtd5X/0c94988862dccf442386822af0e232a3/5Bullets_Chart_121924.png" alt="nothing goes up" width="540px" />
&ldquo;Going into Wednesday&rsquo;s trading &mdash; even though most of the indices were down during December &mdash; the S&amp;P 500 was very extended from its 50-day moving average.&rdquo;
So that&rsquo;s the backdrop. Now the opportunity&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;My experience has taught me that big drops like this usually snap back, especially this time of year,&rdquo; Enrique continues.
&ldquo;Remember that almost every professional money manager out there is up for the year. Many of them also are compensated based on their year-end performance.
&ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t make any logical sense, but that&rsquo;s how it&rsquo;s done.
&ldquo;This means they&rsquo;re much more willing to buy stocks while they are down to support their positions. Especially on the back of the kind of &lsquo;news&rsquo; we just got &mdash; an unimportant change in the bias of the Federal Reserve.&rdquo;
But it&rsquo;s not just the fact we&rsquo;re approaching the end of the year. Any time the Dow Industrials have an extended stretch of losing days &mdash; the Dow broke its losing streak yesterday at 10 &mdash; the odds of a snapback are strong.
Enrique directs your attention to this table from the renowned Stock Trader&rsquo;s Almanac, depicting all the episodes in which the Dow traded down at least nine days in a row. Yes, there are a lot of numbers here, but look at the bottom line in those last four columns&hellip;

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/enlarged-images/ttr-issue-12-19-24-enlarged-image-1.png" width="540px" />

<a href="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/enlarged-images/ttr-issue-12-19-24-enlarged-image-1.png">Click to Enlarge</a>
Yep, after an extended losing streak there&rsquo;s a better-than-70% probability that the Dow rallies in the next week and the next month. After three months, that probability rises to 82% &mdash; and the typical rally is nearly 6%.
&ldquo;For many traders, this data might be surprising,&rdquo; Enrique says &mdash; especially because, as he&rsquo;ll readily concede, &ldquo;the current selling pressure might feel terrible for most investors.
&ldquo;But history tells us that being open to further upside is the best strategy. It&rsquo;s a high-probability bet &mdash; and one that I think will pay off soon!&rdquo;
[Editor&rsquo;s note: If Enrique&rsquo;s point of view resonates with you, you should know I just got word that he&rsquo;s at the center of a major change we&rsquo;re making here at Paradigm Press for 2025.
<a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2397954">Please watch this one-minute video</a> from our publisher Matt Insley explaining what&rsquo;s going on &ndash; and what&rsquo;s in it for you.]
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Snapback Underway Already&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Indeed, the rebound might well be underway today &mdash; and not just in stocks.
All the major U.S. stock indexes are solidly in the green &mdash; at last check, all up about 1.7%. The Dow is back above 43,000.
Bonds are rallying too, pushing yields down. The yield on a 10-year Treasury note is back to 4.51% after touching a seven-month high yesterday.
Precious metals are likewise showing signs of life &mdash; gold up $31 to $2.625 and silver up 43 cents to $29.42. It helps that the dollar is weakening relative to other major currencies, the U.S. Dollar Index back below 108.
Crude is not sharing in the rally, however. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate is back below $70.
And Bitcoin couldn&rsquo;t hold onto $100,000. As we write, it&rsquo;s $97,543.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Behold, more evidence that inflation is proving to be &ldquo;sticky.&rdquo;
The Commerce Department is out this morning with &ldquo;core PCE&rdquo; &mdash; the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s preferred measure of inflation. When Fed officials discuss their 2% inflation target, this is the number they have in mind.
Unfortunately, the number is nowhere near 2% &mdash; and at 2.8% it&rsquo;s been moving higher four of the last five months&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1JNcFa0FCNYz7xzRzks8oM/c7550aa626e20b7a46323d7e83dfa493/5Bullets_Chart_122024.png" alt="nowhere near 2%" width="540px" />
If the Fed is looking for an excuse to &ldquo;pause&rdquo; its interest rate cuts, it&rsquo;s here. Granted, there will be one more release of this number before the Fed&rsquo;s next policy-setting meeting in late January.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Less Than 12 Hours&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Wall Street certainly seems to have shaken off the threat of a &ldquo;partial government shutdown&rdquo; that came out of nowhere. But the threat lingers.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2n4G76cyWERt4c6xgOarAK/658605057d80de20b3fc1a22d37ad62c/Congress-Bill.png" alt="Congress Bill" width="540px" />
When we last left this saga yesterday, Donald Trump had deep-sixed an outrageous 1,547-page kitchen-sink &ldquo;continuing resolution&rdquo; that would have kept the government funded through mid-March &mdash; and averted a &ldquo;partial government shutdown&rdquo; effective midnight tonight.
So House Speaker Mike Johnson had to regroup. After cobbling together a 116-page alternative that met with Trump&rsquo;s approval, it was put up for a vote late yesterday &mdash; and went down in flames, 174-235.
Only two Democrats voted for it &mdash; and 38 Republicans, mostly fiscal hawks, voted against it. Trump&rsquo;s approval notwithstanding, it still smacked of business-as-usual.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/7CxsOPHrVPjIO7WpDUoMi1/d80a237cfbcfc15caf28bd693c9e6354/ThomasTweet.png" alt="Thomas Tweet" width="540px" />
With the benefit of hindsight, it appears Trump was actually OK with the original monstrosity. It was Elon Musk who was not &mdash; and he marshaled his followers on X to raise hell with their congresscritters. Trump boarded a train that was already in motion.
At least that&rsquo;s what Nick Catoggio reports at The Dispatch. &ldquo;If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time since Trump took over the [Republican] party that some other populist has managed to impose his will on it.&rdquo;
One member of Congress&rsquo; upper chamber is duly impressed&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/mHwuYYxG04JhQPFML8uTQ/adfe2b41f3604218bbf8f5465fbe73b8/RandTweet.png" alt="Rand Tweet" width="540px" />
Meanwhile, President Biden cut short a trip to Delaware so he could return to Washington &ndash; and Vice President Harris cancelled a trip to California.
Presumably all of that is to keep tabs on the situation &mdash; and for Harris to act as a tie-breaking vote in the Senate &mdash; but there&rsquo;s no shortage of speculation, including <a href="https://x.com/BasedMikeLee/status/1869961899422490790">from members of Congress</a>, that a &ldquo;25th Amendment moment&rdquo; is nigh and <a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/kamala-advisor-calls-for-bidens-resignation">Harris will occupy the Oval Office</a> for a few weeks until January 20.
If that&rsquo;s really what&rsquo;s going down, don&rsquo;t expect an announcement before the market closes today. Just sayin&rsquo;&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Follow-ups: Electricity Shortages, TikTok
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The following is one of our occasional reminders that the electric grid is still in dire shape.
The North American Electricity Reliability Corporation is out with its annual &ldquo;Long-Term Reliability Assessment&rdquo; of the continent&rsquo;s power grid.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re seeing demand growth like we haven&rsquo;t seen in decades,&rdquo; says John Moura, NERC&rsquo;s director of reliability assessment and planning &mdash; thanks in large part to <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-monster-that-ate-the-power-grid-ai">the explosion of data centers processing AI</a>. The buildout of new power plants simply isn&rsquo;t keeping up with the closings of older coal and nuclear plants.
As has been the case in recent years, the area of the country at highest risk of planned blackouts during times of peak demand is the red area on the map. It&rsquo;s served by the regional grid operator MISO and it stretches from the Upper Midwest to the Lower Mississippi River valley. This map comes straight from NERC&rsquo;s report&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3OnfrEsNqZuEeKWzNu94A/8ec6699cece335f5c26523d9af716e69/RiskArea-Map.png" alt="Risk Area Map" width="540px" />
Orange areas are at lesser risk &ndash; but they&rsquo;re not free and clear. That includes the grid operator PJM, whose service area stretches New Jersey west to Chicago. PJM was *this* close to imposing rolling blackouts during a Christmas Eve cold snap two years ago.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> For the record: Under an impending death sentence, TikTok will make its case for a reprieve before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As we&rsquo;ve chronicled since last spring, TikTok will be banned next month under legislation passed by Congress and signed by Joe Biden &mdash; assuming TikTok&rsquo;s Chinese owners can&rsquo;t line up an American buyer.
TikTok, along with some of its users, is challenging the constitutionality of the law. So far it&rsquo;s had little success in the lower courts, but the Supreme Court has agreed to take the case. Oral arguments are set for Friday, January 10.
We won&rsquo;t dwell on the matter today, seeing as we shared further background and our deep skepticism of Congress&rsquo; justifications for the law <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/shortcut-to-a-miracle#4">only a few days ago</a>.
There&rsquo;s only a nine-day gap between the time the high court hears the case and the time the law takes effect on January 19. The most likely outcome is that the Supreme Court puts the ban on hold long enough to send the case back to lower courts for further review.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In case you missed it&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4ljX3Zu7Xh1FfN40fr2OWU/0b4c0b53fad4ed9aafccdc9d376dc92b/TruthDetails.png" alt="Truth Details" width="540px" />
Hear, hear! <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-secret-history-of-time-change">The end of time change can&rsquo;t come soon enough</a> &ndash; and it shouldn&rsquo;t be a partisan issue.
Have a good weekend,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 2294182449

What if Wednesday’s mini-crash had nothing at all to do with the Federal Reserve?

Forget the Fed

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />The Future Is &ldquo;Tokenized&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The year 2025 will be the year of &ldquo;tokenization,&rdquo; declares Paradigm&rsquo;s crypto and AI authority James Altucher.
James was one of 11 Paradigm editors who gathered near our Baltimore headquarters last Thursday for a meeting of the minds. They unveiled their top forecasts for 2025 &mdash; the trends, the opportunities and especially the surprises.
What follows are some highlights from this extended bull session &mdash; and we do mean &ldquo;some.&rdquo;
In several cases, the editors purposely submitted ideas still in their formative stages &mdash; eager for their colleagues to poke holes in their arguments so they can refine those ideas and make them &ldquo;ready for prime time&rdquo; in the form of an investment thesis to present to paid subscribers. So you won&rsquo;t hear about those today.
In a few cases, though, the ideas presented were already fully vetted &mdash; with compelling supporting evidence even when they seem over-the-top outrageous.
And so it goes with James&rsquo; tokenization forecast&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We&rsquo;ll get to what &ldquo;tokenization&rdquo; is momentarily. First, some background&hellip;
In 2017, James declared there was $200 trillion of currency in the world &mdash; and if Bitcoin could capture just 1% of that share, it would have a $2 trillion market cap and be worth $100,000.
Lo and behold, that&rsquo;s where we are here in December 2024.
But in retrospect, James says he was missing the full picture. Yes, there&rsquo;s $200 trillion of currency in the world &mdash; but there&rsquo;s $1.4 quadrillion in financial assets.
And any financial asset can be turned into a cryptocurrency. That&rsquo;s tokenization.
What&rsquo;s the benefit, you ask?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Think about this, says James: &ldquo;Every time you use your credit card, you're basically saying, &lsquo;I agree to give some random companies 2-3% of my money just to spend my own money.&rsquo;
&ldquo;If you make $100,000 a year, you're instantly giving away $2,000&ndash;3,000 just for the privilege of buying stuff. It's even worse if you're a small-business owner &mdash; those fees might be eating up 15&ndash;20% of your actual profits.&rdquo;
Oh, and in the 48 hours it frequently takes to process each transaction, all those middlemen are earning interest on your money.
Tokenization can change all that: Any financial asset can be a cryptocurrency, traded on an exchange 24/7 and at a fraction of the fees. The time isn&rsquo;t that far off, says James, when instead of jumping through the hoops of taking out a home-equity loan, you could tokenize your house and lend 10% of it to anyone who&rsquo;ll agree to your terms.
It sounds far out &mdash; but with a more crypto-friendly administration about to take over the executive branch, it&rsquo;s coming faster than you think.
James is especially encouraged by Donald Trump&rsquo;s appointment of a crypto and AI &ldquo;czar&rdquo; &mdash; David Sacks. Sacks helped revolutionize payments a generation ago as chief operating officer of PayPal. He was right there in the &ldquo;PayPal mafia&rdquo; along with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. And he&rsquo;s in a position to effect an even more radical transformation now.
Crypto is &ldquo;not JUST about Bitcoin,&rdquo; says James &mdash; &ldquo;it's about the entire financial system being rebuilt from scratch.
&ldquo;Remember when we all thought the internet was about email? This is like that.
&ldquo;We're all focused on crypto prices while the actual infrastructure of money is being reinvented.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s early days and James is still researching the best-in-class players who will put the word &ldquo;tokenization&rdquo; on everyone&rsquo;s lips in 2025.
In the meantime, here&rsquo;s an idea of James&rsquo; that&rsquo;s ready for you to seize on right now. It comes on the heels of a major announcement from Nvidia &mdash; and James has discovered a way to bank 10X, perhaps in as little as 12 months.
<a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2395571">For details, please review this urgent message from our director of customer success</a>.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Revealed: The Biggest Market Story of 2025
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;What if I told you that I could tell you the biggest news story of next year?&rdquo; says trading pro Enrique Abeyta, the newest member of the Paradigm team. &ldquo;I know exactly what it&rsquo;s going to be.&rdquo; 
Hold onto your hat: Enrique says Nvidia Corp. will shed $1 trillion of its market cap sometime in 2025 &mdash; or at the outside, the first half of 2026.
Given NVDA&rsquo;s current market cap of $3.21 trillion, we&rsquo;re looking at a 31% drop. And that drop could happen in a matter of days &mdash; most likely on an earnings disappointment.
The drop will be a shock for anyone who&rsquo;s not ready &mdash; which is to say nearly everyone. But Enrique says it&rsquo;s baked into the cake: There&rsquo;s 150 years of history and data behind it, and a dozen market cycles &mdash; some of which have happened within our lifetimes.
The best analogue he can draw on is Amazon during the dot-com bust from 2000&ndash;2002: AMZN&rsquo;s share price lost a staggering 90% before staging a comeback and becoming a dominant force.
Nvidia, he says, will do the same. Over time, its present $3.21 trillion market cap will double or maybe even 10X. But before that happens, there will be a drop that catches the CNBC crowd totally off-guard.
Enrique shared an idea with the group about how to hedge this risk. For the moment we&rsquo;re going to withhold that idea in case he wishes to release it first to some of our paying readership&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />As the Bull Market Enters Year Three&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Some of you might have noticed we&rsquo;re in a bull market,&rdquo; quips Paradigm chart hound Greg &ldquo;Gunner&rdquo; Guenthner.
And he says you can be forgiven for thinking the atmosphere right now is a little too bullish, maybe even bubbly, given the enthusiasm for AI and memecoins.
But here&rsquo;s the reality: The current cyclical bull market began in October 2022 &mdash; the S&amp;P 500&rsquo;s bottom after a bear-market drop of over 20%.
Since 1950, the typical bull market has run 5&frac12; years, generating an average gain of 114%.
So by that standard, we&rsquo;re not even halfway through, and more gains are yet to be had: We&rsquo;re early in year three, and the gain so far is about 70%.
That said, the third year of a bull market tends to be a snooze compared with what came before: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re probably not going to have the big push higher that we did in 2024,&rdquo; says Gunner.
What&rsquo;s more, we&rsquo;re overdue for a 10% pullback &mdash; the last one came more than a year ago. &ldquo;Be on the lookout, even in the first half of 2025, for the S&amp;P 500 to drop 10%.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Which means you can&rsquo;t rest on your laurels in an S&amp;P 500 index fund &mdash; especially if your impulse is to hit &ldquo;sell&rdquo; as soon as there&rsquo;s a flurry of bearish mainstream headlines.
You&rsquo;re going to have to be more selective to achieve outperformance. On that score, Gunner is still keen on Bitcoin, seeing the potential to hit $279,000 by this time next year. (Just beware that it&rsquo;s far more volatile than an S&amp;P index fund!)
Something else to consider is the enormous outperformance of &ldquo;soft&rdquo; commodities like coffee and cocoa. Coffee futures recently eclipsed their all-time high set in 1977. &ldquo;No wonder I haven&rsquo;t been able to get Dunkin&rsquo; coffee on sale at Costco!&rdquo; he laments.
The simplest way for retail investors to play the trend is the Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA).
&ldquo;DBA presents a picture-perfect uptrend off the 2022 bottom and the closest thing to a pure play on coffee and cocoa,&rdquo; says Gunner.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/BZ31CXDA4js2OXKKu6f2IWB_4R?domain=images.ctfassets.net" alt="soft commodities" width="540px" />
&ldquo;If today&rsquo;s agriculture rallies mimic the 1970s bull runs, coffee is just beginning to percolate,&rdquo; he concludes, &ldquo;and cocoa will likely see another 400%-plus markup.&rdquo;
[Dave&rsquo;s disclosure: I built a small position in DBA throughout 2021 and I might add to it here.]
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The most interesting market story as a new week begins is in crypto: Bitcoin sailed past $106,000 over the weekend and that gain is holding for the moment.
Elsewhere in the cryptosphere, Ethereum poked past $4,000 this morning &mdash; testing its year-to-date peak from mid-March. (Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum still has a ways to go to equal its giddy late-2021 record near $4,750.)
As for stocks, it&rsquo;s the Nasdaq leading the major indexes higher &mdash; up 0.85% at last check, into record territory at 20,096. The S&amp;P 500 is up 0.4% at 6,074 while the Dow is flat.
Not much action in the commodity complex &mdash; gold at $2,654, silver at $30.56 and crude at $70.72.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />The National Strategic Computing Reserve
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The U.S. government has a Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And Donald Trump is talking up a strategic Bitcoin reserve. How about a strategic reserve of computer power?
That&rsquo;s the bold forecast of Paradigm&rsquo;s tech-investing specialist Ray Blanco &mdash; a National Strategic Computing Reserve.
It will be an expensive and all-encompassing undertaking &mdash; comparable to the Manhattan Project and the moon landing.
Ray says it will aim to ensure the United States is the world leader not only in AI but in the next generation of digital technology &mdash; quantum computing.
We won&rsquo;t get into the weeds of quantum computing today except to say that it&rsquo;s an enormous leap from anything we&rsquo;ve seen up until now.
If quantum physics blows your mind &mdash; the idea that, say, a particle can be in two places at once &mdash; quantum computing is much the same. Rather than bits of 0s and 1s, the building block of quantum computing is qubits that can be 0 and 1 at the same time.
Ray says the guts of a National Strategic Computing Reserve are already in place, thanks to a Biden administration initiative in 2021 that aimed to harness computer power to track the progress of COVID and other viruses.
And with figures like Elon Musk, David Sacks and Marc Andreessen in Trump&rsquo;s circle, Ray believes it will become a newsmaking force in 2025 comparable to the space program in the 1960s.
Yes, there&rsquo;s an investment play, and it&rsquo;s not a tiny unknown thing either; it&rsquo;s a $28 billion company. But the recommendation will likely go out first to readers of Altucher&rsquo;s Investment Network, so we&rsquo;ll hold off naming it here&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: Taxing Matters
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Thank you for the inflation tax adjustments detailed in Bullet No. 2 <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/trumps-tax-deadline-yours-too">on Friday</a>,&rdquo; a reader writes.
&ldquo;I was so impressed, I sent a revised version to my congressperson. He has been a reliable vote for the Nancy Pelosi party since 2001: likely not a reader of your newsletter.&rdquo;
Dave responds: There&rsquo;s no reason Democrats couldn&rsquo;t get behind some of these ideas &mdash; especially adjusting the &ldquo;provisional income&rdquo; threshold on Social Security and raising the capital gains exemption on a home sale.
But at this stage, it appears that any bipartisan momentum on taxes will probably coalesce around lifting the SALT deduction on state and local taxes.
One wonders, however, how much of an increase will make a difference &mdash; even in high-tax &ldquo;blue&rdquo; states. For a lot of folks, the standard deduction nowadays is such that it would take a very high SALT cap to make it worth the trouble to start itemizing again&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;The government is a devious lot,&rdquo; a reader writes on the notion of &ldquo;Rothifying&rdquo; 401(k) contributions &mdash; also detailed <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/trumps-tax-deadline-yours-too">in our tax-themed edition Friday</a>.
&ldquo;In Canada we have a RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) similar I believe to the 401(k). You put money in and get a tax break, about which you think, Woo-hoo. The money inside the RRSP grows tax free. When you retire your earned income goes down and you pay less taxes.
&ldquo;Then when you have to withdraw savings from your RRSP, according to government rules, your earned income goes up and voila you&rsquo;re paying the same high taxes as when you were working. It&rsquo;s nothing more than income leveling for the legalized mafia (government). So if this is similar to your system, they won&rsquo;t change the rules.
&ldquo;P.S. Don&rsquo;t ask me about property assessment in Canada, which most inhabitants of this country aren&rsquo;t aware of.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to say I love The 5. Love is reserved for people but I have to read it every day, no ifs ands or&hellip; those buts weren&rsquo;t intentional but I couldn&rsquo;t think of any other wording.&rdquo;
Dave: Yes, we have RMDs, or required minimum distributions, starting at age 73, although that will go up to age 75 come 2033.
The amount you&rsquo;re required to take out rises each year &mdash; which, without judicious tax planning, puts retirees at risk of going into a higher tax bracket and/or paying higher Medicare premiums. So the mafia metaphor is apt&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 2075937937

The year 2025 will be the year of “tokenization,” declares Paradigm’s crypto and AI authority James Altucher.

A $1.4 Quadrillion Transformation

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Trump&rsquo;s First Order of Business
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />What a whirlwind &mdash; 11 presentations in two hours and 45 minutes.
From far and wide, the Paradigm Press editors converged on our Baltimore headquarters yesterday.
They unveiled their top forecasts for 2025 &mdash; the trends, the opportunities and especially the surprises.
They faced a tough crowd &mdash; their fellow editors as well as our support staff of laypeople who are much like you &mdash; open to entertaining complex ideas, but wanting them boiled down to clear takeaways.
I&rsquo;m still pulling all my notes together; look for highlights on Monday.
In the meantime, it&rsquo;s not too early to look ahead to one of the major economic agenda items for the Trump administration&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Beyond whatever executive orders he issues on Inauguration Day, the first order of business in Donald Trump&rsquo;s second term will be the same as it was in his first &mdash; taxes.
Well, actually, the first order of business in his first term was repealing Obamacare &mdash; but that never got done, even with Republican control of the House and Senate.
But tax cuts did get done in 2017. And they came with an expiration date &mdash; year-end 2025. Barely 12 months from now.
That&rsquo;s a function of the byzantine budgetary logic under which Washington, D.C., operates. Everything has to pencil out (kinda, sorta) over a decade-long time horizon. So in this instance, the only way to &ldquo;recover&rdquo; the &ldquo;lost&rdquo; revenue from this tax law was to sunset the entirety of the law after eight years.
The Trump tax cuts &mdash; formally the &ldquo;Tax Cuts and Jobs Act&rdquo; &mdash; lowered average tax rates for all income groups, according to research from the Tax Foundation&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1aYRd1QOszAROtnfo9Syhx/451d359700a99e6d87594fb62495ed92/TaxRates.png" alt="Tax Rates" width="540px" />
With Republicans in charge of both the House and Senate, those post-2017 rates are sure to stay in place now &mdash; even for folks at the top end of the income scale.
But beyond that, there are many other details to thrash out. On the campaign trail this fall, Trump said he wanted to&hellip;
<ul>
<li>End the taxation of Social Security benefits</li>
<li>Eliminate taxes on tips</li>
<li>Exclude overtime pay from income tax</li>
<li>Make interest on auto loans fully deductible</li>
<li>Jack up the child tax credit.</li>
</ul>
One more possibility &mdash; raising the cap on the SALT deduction for state and local taxes. Republicans from high-tax blue states like New York and California have wanted this for years; Given how Trump <a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/crosses-and-pitchforks-reclaim-america">improved</a> his vote margin in those states between 2020 and 2024, he might be receptive.
But political realities are such that he&rsquo;s not going to get everything he wants on that list.
Today, we&rsquo;ll propose an alternative wish list. It has to do with a series of &ldquo;gotcha&rdquo; taxes that you may or may not be aware of. They&rsquo;re worth bearing in mind as you get ready to prepare your taxes next spring.
Every item on the following wish list would ease the burden of inflation &mdash; which, you&rsquo;ve probably noticed, has had an impact on your monthly budget in recent years.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Please, Please &mdash; Repeal These &ldquo;Gotcha&rdquo; Taxes
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> If Trump can&rsquo;t end the taxation of Social Security benefits, the least he could do is to end the &ldquo;gotcha&rdquo; tax that&rsquo;s built into Social Security.
First, the background. When Social Security was overhauled during Ronald Reagan&rsquo;s first term, Social Security benefits became taxable income for the first time.
Since 1984, seniors have paid tax on &ldquo;provisional income&rdquo; above $32,000. The figure is calculated by adding up your gross income, tax-free interest and 50% of Social Security benefits.
Even though this formula came into effect 40 years ago, it&rsquo;s never been adjusted for inflation. If it were, the threshold would be $96,863.
LOGO &mdash; Another gotcha tax is more recent: It affects homeowners and it came into effect under Bill Clinton.
Under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, there&rsquo;s an exemption on any capital gains you rake in from the sale of a personal residence &mdash; $250,000 for individuals, $500,000 for couples. (You have to have lived in the home for at least two of the last five years, and the exemption is allowable only once every two years.)
Even though this legislation was passed more than a generation ago, those thresholds have never been adjusted for inflation. If they were, they&rsquo;d be $489,740 for individuals and $979,490 for couples.
And even those higher figures wouldn&rsquo;t be fair &mdash; considering that home prices have risen much faster than the inflation rate.
Imagine a just-retired couple looking to downsize and sell a home where they&rsquo;ve lived for the last 20 or 30 years. Ouch.
This is a reality that&rsquo;s biting especially hard right now for Californians looking to move to a lower-tax locale like Arizona or Texas.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> And then there&rsquo;s the Obamacare tax.
Strictly speaking, it&rsquo;s a Medicare surtax, but it took effect along with Obamacare in 2013. There are two main features to this surtax&hellip;
<ul>
<li>A 3.8% levy on dividends and long-term capital gains for individuals earning over $200,000 and couples earning over $250,000</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>A 0.9% levy applied to all income over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples (on top of the 1.45% Medicare tax everyone pays on every dollar of wages)</li>
</ul>
Even though these income thresholds came into effect more than a decade ago, they&rsquo;ve never been adjusted for inflation. If they were, they&rsquo;d be $269,960 for individuals and $337,450 for couples.
(And even with those higher thresholds, there&rsquo;d still be a heckuva marriage penalty.)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> One more gotcha tax &mdash; and this one even precedes the tax on Social Security benefits.
As you might be aware, you can write off investment losses on your income taxes &mdash; up to a point.
Tax-loss selling, it&rsquo;s called: You sell an underperforming investment and apply the loss to reduce your taxable capital gains. If your losses are greater than the gains, you can offset as much as $3,000 of your ordinary income.
Sounds generous, you say? Not so much. Under the Tax Reform Act of 1976, this $3,000 cap took effect way back in 1978 &mdash; when Grease was the No. 1 movie and the year&rsquo;s top-charting song was Andy Gibb&rsquo;s &ldquo;Shadow Dancing.&rdquo;
Yeah, it&rsquo;s never been adjusted for inflation. If it were, it would be nearly $14,500 now.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Fixing these gotcha taxes seems like a modest and doable way to take some of the sting out of this decade&rsquo;s inflation &mdash; for which both Trump and Biden bear responsibility.
But before we move on, there&rsquo;s one other item we need to address: We sincerely hope it doesn&rsquo;t end up on Congress&rsquo; agenda, but we can&rsquo;t dismiss the possibility.
See, if the Trump tax cuts are to be made permanent, the politicos are gonna have to come up with more revenue from somewhere.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />The End of the 401(k) Tax Break?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> And that &ldquo;somewhere&rdquo; might be your 401(k).
After all, &ldquo;Eliminating the favorable tax treatment of the 401(k) is much less painful politically than increasing taxes directly,&rdquo; economist Allison Schrager wrote in a Bloomberg opinion piece earlier this year.
I&rsquo;ve been following this story since the 2008 financial crisis. Back then, when the crash had already vaporized $2 trillion from Americans&rsquo; 401(k) and pension plans, I wrote at The Daily Reckoning&rsquo;s website about a proposal in Congress to exclude &ldquo;high income&rdquo; earners from making tax-deferred 401(k) contributions.
Rep. George Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, was candid about the aim: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve invested $80 billion into subsidizing this activity.&rdquo; In other words, Uncle Sugar was &ldquo;sacrificing&rdquo; $80 billion in revenue every year for the sake of a &ldquo;high-income&rdquo; giveaway.
The idea never got out of committee&hellip; but it&rsquo;s never gone away. Academics, think-tank types and investment bankers have all issued position papers on the topic in subsequent years &mdash; some of them suggesting that the tax breaks of a 401(k) be phased out for everyone, no matter their income.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Key point: Republicans seriously entertained this idea while writing the Trump tax cut bill in 2017.
Trump&rsquo;s director of the White House National Economic Council, Gary Gohn, floated the idea.
House Ways and Means Committee chair Kevin Brady (R-Texas) appeared receptive. If it had gone through, your annual 401(k) contributions would have been capped at a paltry $2,400.
For perspective, the cap for most people that year was $18,000; this year, because the cap is adjusted for inflation, it&rsquo;s $23,000.
Under the proposal, any contributions above that puny $2,400 cap were to be &ldquo;Rothified.&rdquo; That is, it would be treated like a Roth IRA &mdash; you&rsquo;d pay taxes on it now, with the promise that the money plus any investment gains could be withdrawn tax-free in retirement.
There was just enough pushback that Trump issued a tweet promising &ldquo;NO change to your 401(k). This has always been a great and popular middle class tax break that works, and it stays!&rdquo;
Cohn lasted only 15 months at the White House and Rep. Brady retired at the end of 2022, so they&rsquo;re not around to resurrect this proposal. But someone else might this time: Would Trump squash it down again, or would he trade it off for another concession as he pursued the art of the deal?
We&rsquo;ll concede it&rsquo;s a low-probability outcome. But it would also be high-impact. We&rsquo;ll stay on top of it&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Reliable Recession Benchmark
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> By one measure, a 2025 recession is baked into the economic cake now.
That&rsquo;s because the 3-month/10-year yield curve has uninverted.
Yeah, we&rsquo;d better back up in case you&rsquo;re unfamiliar or you need a refresher.
Under normal circumstances, long-term interest rates are higher than short-term rates. That&rsquo;s because under normal circumstances, lending money for longer stretches of time is more risky; there&rsquo;s more time for something to go wrong and the borrower to default.
But on occasion, short-term rates become higher than long-term rates. When that happens lenders anticipate a higher risk of delinquency or default in the short term. Often, that risk is associated with fears of a recession. This is what&rsquo;s known as an &ldquo;inverted yield curve.&rdquo;
There&rsquo;s a lot of misunderstanding surrounding an inverted yield curve; many people think that when it inverts, a recession is imminent.
In reality, it&rsquo;s when the curve uninverts that a recession is nigh.
Certainly that&rsquo;s how it&rsquo;s worked out with every recession going back to 1990. When the line on this chart goes back above zero, the curve has &ldquo;uninverted.&rdquo; Note well: The vertical gray bars are recessions.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4FYzLbN7y9ukgwpR5vwKkj/ae3ad7fb3a4e7f539f52f398da7fb663/5Bullets_Chart_121324.png" alt="yield curve" width="540px" />
Timing, you wonder? Here&rsquo;s how it shook out with the four most recent recessions&hellip;
<ul>
<li>The 1990&ndash;1991 recession began eight months after the curve uninverted in November 1989</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The mild 2001 recession began only two months after the curve uninverted in January</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The &ldquo;Great Recession&rdquo; of 2007&ndash;2009 began seven months after the curve uninverted in May 2007</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The brief 2020 COVID recession began four months after the curve uninverted in October 2019. <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2022/03/11/countdown-to-cover-up/">As we&rsquo;ve recounted</a> in the past, a 2020 recession was likely in the cards even without a pandemic.</li>
</ul>
Admittedly, this is a limited data set. But there&rsquo;s an average five-month interval between the time the curve uninverts and the time a recession sets in. So&hellip; next May, perhaps?
No guarantees, though: A lot of economic numbers have been scrambled in recent years by 1) the rise of work-from-home and 2) an enormous influx of immigrants, legal and otherwise. Perhaps the uninverted yield curve is one of those numbers and it no longer has the predictive value it once did&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> To be sure, there&rsquo;s little evidence of recession fears in the major U.S. stock indexes as the week winds down.
At last check, the Dow is flat, the S&amp;P 500 is up slightly and the Nasdaq is up about a third of a percent.
If these numbers hold by day&rsquo;s end, the Nasdaq will notch a record weekly close &mdash; but not the Dow or the S&amp;P.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Meanwhile, commodities traders are shrugging off the risk of a sudden geopolitical blowup this weekend while the markets are closed.
Oftentimes, gold and oil traders avoid being &ldquo;short&rdquo; on a Friday when the world looks volatile &mdash; and that&rsquo;s certainly the case today&hellip;
<ul>
<li>According to Israeli media, the Israeli military sees the downfall of the Assad regime in Syria as an ideal opportunity to start bombing Iran. There&rsquo;s almost nothing left of Syria&rsquo;s Russian-made air defenses after Israel spent most of this week bombing the hell out of them. In the past, those air defenses were a formidable deterrent to Israeli bombings of Iranian targets, but no more.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Ukraine has once again used American-provided ATACMS missiles to strike well inside Russian territory. The last time Ukraine did this, Russia unleashed its new game-changing Oreshnik missile &mdash; as Jim Rickards recounted for us yesterday. The logical response this time would be an attack on the new U.S. missile base in Poland&hellip;</li>
</ul>
And yet gold and silver are taking another beating today &mdash; gold down nearly $19 at $2,661 and silver off another 46 cents to $30.47. The HUI index of mining stocks is back below 300.
Crude is rallying, but not dramatically &mdash; up 77 cents to $70.79, the highest since before Thanksgiving.
Bitcoin&rsquo;s rally back above $100,000 is holding going into the weekend.
Staying with geopolitics as we wind down the week&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Comic Relief
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Playing off a meme we shared on Monday&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3HpG0LONndHsYCEupV2XpH/75762bd7b2843a72f2650a8b09b292a2/IranTweet.png" alt="Iran Tweet" width="540px" />
I don&rsquo;t know who&rsquo;s actually behind the &ldquo;Iran Military&rdquo; account on X, but it&rsquo;s home to some first-class trolling of the Deep State!
Have a good weekend,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 1693649134

The first order of business in Donald Trump’s second term will be the same as it was in his first — taxes.

Trump’s Tax Deadline (Yours Too)

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />A Staggering 108X Gain Then&hellip; Bupkis Now
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> How the mighty have fallen.
One-time biotech phenom Gilead Sciences (GILD) trades this morning for a little over $94 a share &mdash; no more than it traded for in early 2016.
The year 2015 was as good as it got for GILD &mdash; over $120 a share as the company rode the wave of a treatment for hepatitis C called Sovaldi.
As chronicled in our voluminous archives, Gilead sold $10.3 billion of Sovaldi in 2014 &mdash; at a cost of $1,000 a pill, or $84,000 for a 12-week course.
[That was in the United States. In Egypt, Gilead charged $900 for a course of treatment. That&rsquo;s how messed up the U.S. health care system is, but we don&rsquo;t want to get sidetracked from our main point today&hellip;]
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Seen in the context of a share price that&rsquo;s gone nowhere for over eight years, it&rsquo;s easy to forget how Gilead made enormous fortunes for early investors.
Gilead&rsquo;s signature breakthrough came in the 1990s &mdash; a treatment for AIDS. As Paradigm&rsquo;s biotech maven Ray Blanco reminds us, it turned AIDS &ldquo;from a virtual death sentence into a survivable condition &mdash; even something that could be managed.
&ldquo;Today, a large number of those being treated for HIV in the developing world are taking Gilead&rsquo;s antiviral drugs.&rdquo;
Those with the foresight to get in on GILD in the late &rsquo;90s scored a staggering gain of 10,861% by the time of GILD&rsquo;s peak in 2015.
That is, they made 108X their money in less than 20 years.
Come to think of it, GILD&rsquo;s trajectory is a lot like Apple&rsquo;s &mdash; then a go-go growth company and nonstop innovator that made many people wealthy, now a mature dividend-paying stalwart resting on its laurels. (At least AAPL&rsquo;s share price has kept rising; heck, at nearly $250 this morning, it sits at an all-time high.)
We recount this history by way of introducing you to what might be &ldquo;the next Gilead&rdquo; &mdash; with similarly staggering profit potential.
Ray mentioned it here yesterday. Leveraging the research power of AI, this company might well be sitting on a holy-grail treatment for everything from Alzheimer&rsquo;s to cancer to diabetes to heart disease to arthritis.
<a id="2"></a>
And the scientists behind it are set to make an earth-shaking announcement tomorrow in New York at 9:00 a.m. EST.
As you can well imagine, the time to get in would be before that announcement. <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2394212">We urge you to follow this link and give Ray&rsquo;s report a look right away</a>.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Inflation: Moving in the Wrong Direction
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The mainstream spin on the official inflation numbers issued this morning is&hellip; amusing.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6uqEPJBDBBaw8h2iF21auH/f5807e6adfc2faacaa7c2728d29d7637/BreakingNews.png" alt="breaking news" width="540px" />
But&hellip; but&hellip; we were told inflation was getting under control!
Anywho, the consumer price index rose 0.3% month-over-month and 2.7% year-over-year. This is the second-straight month the official inflation rate has been moving in the wrong direction.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6itn8vsH7s2xlGygvSrp3G/78b717a4258ea2884758d81734430279/FMF_5Bullets_Chart_1211.jpg" alt="infltion" width="540px" />
Yes, gasoline prices are coming down but nearly everything else is going up: Food prices are up, for instance, as bird flu is bringing on tighter supplies of poultry and eggs.
And the biggest driver of all, seeing as it makes up a third of the index, is housing &mdash; up 0.3% month-over-month and 4.7% year-over-year.
If you&rsquo;ve been keeping up with these missives regularly, the new uptrend should be no surprise: As we&rsquo;ve been saying <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/declare-your-independence-from-inflation">since last year</a>, the historical evidence is overwhelming that once inflation sails beyond 5% &mdash; as it did in 2021&ndash;22 &mdash; getting back to &ldquo;normal&rdquo; 2% levels can take a decade or longer.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Not that any of this will deter the Federal Reserve from cutting short-term interest rates again at its next meeting a week from today.
The betting in the futures markets this morning shows a 96% probability the Fed will cut the fed funds rate another quarter-percentage point to 4.5%.
Inflation notwithstanding, the Fed will not violate expectations by pausing a rate-cutting cycle it started only three months ago.
Now, the next meeting beyond this one could be another matter: There will be another month&rsquo;s worth of inflation data by the time of the Jan. 29 meeting. Three months of a rising inflation rate might well change the Fed&rsquo;s tune.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> But that&rsquo;s then and this is now: Mr. Market is waving off the inflation numbers.
At last check, the Dow is ruler-flat at 44,245. But the S&amp;P 500 is up two-thirds of a percent to 6,075 &mdash; not far from last week&rsquo;s record close. And the Nasdaq is up 1.2% into record territory &mdash; and only 75 points away from 20,000.
Gold&rsquo;s move over $2,700 couldn&rsquo;t stick yesterday, but today it might &mdash; the bid up $24 to $2,717. Then again, we&rsquo;re not seeing the action confirmed in silver and the mining stocks: Silver still can&rsquo;t crack $32.
Elsewhere in the commodity complex, crude is up nearly a buck to $69.50 &mdash; the highest in a week.
Bitcoin has pushed its way back over $100,000 &mdash; but just barely.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />What Does a Treasury Secretary Do, Anyway?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Now that Donald Trump has settled on his choice for treasury secretary, it's helpful to consider what the treasury secretary actually does,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s macro maven Jim Rickards.
The nod went to hedge fund manager Scott Bessent. Senate confirmation is all but certain.
&ldquo;The single most important function of the treasury secretary is to manage the U.S. Treasury securities market,&rdquo; Jim writes in a recent dispatch to readers of Rickards&rsquo; Insider Intel.
&ldquo;This is the largest, most liquid bond market in the world. It includes short-term debt (Treasury bills of up to 1-year maturity), intermediate-term debt (Treasury notes in various maturities such as 2-, 5- and 10-year notes) and long-term debt (20-year notes and 30-year bonds).
&ldquo;While running the Treasury bond market is critical, it is also straightforward. The treasury secretary simply consults with the major banks (the &lsquo;primary dealers&rsquo;) to see what they and their customers want.
&ldquo;If demands for Treasury bills are high (because they are the most liquid instruments and serve as the best form of collateral), then it behooves the Treasury to issue more Treasury bills. Don&rsquo;t try to sell sneakers if the customers want hoodies.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;The other main job of the Treasury is to take care of the U.S. dollar,&rdquo; Jim goes on.
&ldquo;Many investors assume that supporting the dollar is the job of the Federal Reserve. It&rsquo;s not. The Fed prints dollars (by buying Treasury securities from the primary dealers) and it manages short-term interest rates, but that&rsquo;s not the same as managing the value of the dollar.
&ldquo;Like running the government bond market, managing the dollar is a critical task but not an especially difficult one. The treasury secretary&rsquo;s job is simply to say that Treasury supports a &lsquo;strong dollar&rsquo; or a &lsquo;sound dollar&rsquo; or something similar. Say it and keep saying it. Any other observation on the topic will immediately cause turmoil or worse in foreign exchange markets.
&ldquo;If the treasury secretary ever says he supports a weaker dollar, you will immediately see the dollar crash in foreign exchange markets along with higher market interest rates, weaker bank stock prices and increased inflation expectations. If the treasury secretary says he wants a &lsquo;stronger dollar&rsquo; (as opposed to simply supporting a sound dollar), the same type of turmoil will result in the opposite direction. Foreign currencies (mainly the euro and yen) will crash, interest rates will fall and stocks of banks and U.S. importers will rally.
&ldquo;The lesson is don&rsquo;t do either. Leave it alone. Just say &lsquo;strong dollar&rsquo; and move on.&rdquo;
Jim says all the most-skilled treasury secretaries of the last century followed this route even amid major challenges &mdash; Henry Morgenthau under FDR, James Baker under Reagan, Robert Rubin under Clinton.
Alas, Rubin&rsquo;s acolyte Timothy Geithner did not. During Obama&rsquo;s first term, the dollar sank to an all-time low relative to other major currencies.
Now, you ask? &ldquo;As a seasoned market professional,&rdquo; says Jim, &ldquo;Bessent will almost certainly grasp the importance of this part of the job.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Follow-up: Draft Registration
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />After spending much of this year tiptoeing toward reinstituting the draft&hellip; Congress is now backing away.
Last summer, we took note when early versions of the annual military-spending bill included two eye-opening planks.
One would address the poor compliance with draft registration. Young men ages 18&ndash;26 are supposed to not only register &mdash; but also notify the Selective Service System every time they change address. The new bill would have authorized SSS to cross-reference with the databases of the IRS, Social Security and other federal agencies &mdash; registering young men automatically.
Another provision of the bill would have required young women to register for the draft.
The bill was under debate at a time when people like Christopher Miller &mdash; Donald Trump&rsquo;s last defense secretary &mdash; were talking up some sort of national-service requirement because it would create a sense of &ldquo;shared sacrifice.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> As we said at the time last summer, it&rsquo;s nearly impossible to tease out the economic impact of a draft. It&rsquo;s been more than 50 years since the U.S. military adopted the all-volunteer force.
But if a significant number of young men &mdash; and maybe women &mdash; were withdrawn from the labor force, the economic impact would be palpable.
Fast-forward to the present: As usual, Congress is under the gun to pass the annual military spending bill before wrapping up its business for the year a week from Friday.
And it appears both of these provisions have been stripped from the bill.
That&rsquo;s according to the anti-draft activist Edward Hasbrouck &mdash; who did a brief prison term in the &rsquo;80s for refusing to register. He follows these matters as closely as anyone.
Hasbrouck suspects the proposal to make women register is dead and buried &mdash; but the automatic-registration proposal will surely resurface in the next Congress.
&ldquo;As long as compliance with the self-registration requirement of the Military Selective Service Act continues to plummet,&rdquo; he <a href="https://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/002753.html">writes</a>, &ldquo;lobbying for a switch to &lsquo;automatic&rsquo; registration is likely to remain the highest existential priority for the SSS.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mistrust
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Corrupt health care,&rdquo; says the subject line of a reader&rsquo;s email &mdash; a hot topic after the murder of insurance CEO Brian Thompson.
&ldquo;On the CDC&rsquo;s own website they point out &lsquo;more than 500,000 people in the United States have died from an overdose involving opioids since 1999.&rsquo; That is both prescriptions and illegal. The site does not break it down legal vs. illegal.
&ldquo;And remember these deadly drugs were marketed as safe and non-addictive!!! The fact that a drug that kills that many people is still being prescribed says one thing loud and clear: Profits are the ONLY thing that matters. Any arrests made for deaths caused by legal prescriptions?&rdquo;
Dave responds: There&rsquo;s myriad evidence to illustrate the corruption in the system &mdash; to wit, the pricing discrepancy with Sovaldi noted above. (In the United States, much of that obscene cost has been shouldered by taxpayers &ndash; seeing as many hep-C patients are covered by Medicaid, the VA or prison health care.)
And then there&rsquo;s this: Only yesterday, Bloomberg Law reported that &ldquo;the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is extending through 2029 liability protections for those producing and administering COVID-19 vaccines.&rdquo;
How convenient as the number of cancers and cardiovascular issues continues to grow &mdash; a jump that coincided with the jabs&rsquo; introduction four years ago. (Yes, correlation does not equal causation, but the correlation is worth investigating, no?)
Meanwhile, independent reporter Ken Klippenstein did what the corporate media would not &mdash; <a href="https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/luigis-manifesto">publish the &ldquo;manifesto&rdquo;</a> of Luigi Mangione, the suspect in Thompson&rsquo;s murder.
Already, a few sharp-eyed folks are noticing its style doesn&rsquo;t jibe with Mangione&rsquo;s prolific posts on social media&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4J9KwMAW3tJQnk1bG2qyDR/faef0411850de3a542dabc481aef209a/simone-tweet.png" alt="simone tweet" width="540px" />
Others wonder if the cops really have the right guy&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5uCtuCJGccY9wEmhotkFPa/c6c1e60493c6d53fe4bee92e5b1662d6/BenTweet.png" alt="ben tweet" width="540px" />
And still others point out the pistol in the photo released by the cops sits next to a magazine that&rsquo;s much longer than the grip.
I&rsquo;m not saying any of this to cast doubt on the official story. But I am saying that the level of mistrust among everyday folks should surprise no one given the events of the last 60-plus years &mdash; <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/from-jfk-to-jeffrey-epstein">from JFK to Jeffrey Epstein</a>.
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

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A one-time biotech phenom is stuck in 2016… 

Fallen Pharma Phenom

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Medicine&rsquo;s Holy Grail
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Sometimes the best investment opportunities reward those who are patient.
It was a year ago at this time when Paradigm&rsquo;s tech-and-biotech specialist Ray Blanco forecast that AI would start to transform the biotech sector during 2024.
During an online event we convened for readers called the 7 Predictions Summit, Ray made a powerful case for AI&rsquo;s power in the biotech space.
As a sector, biotech runs extremely hot and cold: For every winner there are at least a half dozen busts.
No wonder: Up until now, 90% of clinical trials end in failure. And the average cost of such a trial runs $2.6 billion across the space of 10 years.
That&rsquo;s $2.6 billion in costs and a decade of time before a penny of revenue materializes &mdash; and in 90% of those cases, the revenue never materializes.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to find the right therapeutic targets to treat disease, and to understand the complex biology of disease,&rdquo; says Ray. &ldquo;Researchers are unable to efficiently explore a huge universe of potential drug structures. It takes a long time to optimize potential drug candidates so they have the desired properties.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> But AI can slash those costs, slash that development time &mdash; and dramatically raise the odds of success.
Makes sense, right? If scientists can use a well-trained AI to rule out formulations that won&rsquo;t work before going to the time and expense of a clinical trial&hellip; suddenly they won&rsquo;t be pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a black hole year after year.
That&rsquo;s the theory, anyway. The practice has been more of a challenge. That&rsquo;s why Ray has been cautious about recommending AI-driven biotechs during 2024.
Until now. And he says it&rsquo;s worth the wait.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> All this year, Ray has been charting the progress of scientists using AI to develop the holy grail of disease treatment.
It&rsquo;s a single breakthrough that could lead to solutions for everything from Alzheimer&rsquo;s to cancer to diabetes to heart disease to arthritis.
&ldquo;The pain and suffering of disease, along with the fear caused by it, may one day be a thing of the past,&rdquo; says Ray.
That&rsquo;s a big promise. But Ray says the promise will be made real during an announcement set for this Thursday &mdash; two days from now &mdash; in New York at 9:00 a.m. EST.
Yes, the profit potential is enormous. The most recent analogue that comes to mind for Ray is many years in the past now. A company called Medivation developed a prostate cancer treatment in 2006. By the time Pfizer acquired the firm a decade later, investors were sitting on a gain of 11,534%.
Now&rsquo;s the time to position yourself ahead of what Ray anticipates will be a world-changing announcement.
It might not be instant riches &mdash; but it could well be the start of something even better &mdash; generational wealth. <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2393755">Click here, let Ray make his case and decide for yourself</a>.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Bitcoin Barrier (It&rsquo;s Temporary)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Try as it might, Bitcoin is having trouble leaving $100,000 behind.
The flagship crypto broke the $100K barrier last Wednesday &mdash; but the move didn&rsquo;t stick. Checking our screens this morning, it&rsquo;s below $96,000.
But Paradigm&rsquo;s trading pros are unperturbed. The move to date has been &ldquo;too damn orderly,&rdquo; Greg Guenthner tells his Trading Desk readers. &ldquo;A little chaos goes a long way in setting up these breakouts. The market needs to squeeze out the weak hands to set up the next leg higher.&rdquo;
History shows that next leg higher is coming &mdash; and it will be substantial, says Enrique Abeyta.
Ordinarily when the relative strength index or RSI on a chart shows a stock or other asset is &ldquo;overbought&rdquo;... that&rsquo;s a sign it&rsquo;s due for a pullback.
But not in Bitcoin&rsquo;s case. When Bitcoin&rsquo;s RSI 83.5 or greater &mdash; an enormously overbought level &mdash; it rises an average 45% over the next 90 days.
&ldquo;One of the core drivers of our successful trading strategies is to avoid overbought stocks and buy oversold ones,&rdquo; says Enrique. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t driven by opinions &mdash; it is driven by the data.
Here the data is telling us something VERY different and we want to respect it.&rdquo;
Elsewhere, the major U.S. stock averages are shaking off their Nvidia-driven doldrums from yesterday. The Dow, S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq are all in the green &mdash; if just barely.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> And now for the least surprising economic number of the year.
The National Federation of Independent Business is out with its monthly Small Business Optimism Index.
The previous survey was conducted before Election Day. As mentioned a month ago, the NFIB&rsquo;s membership skews Republican. Thus we anticipated a big jump in the next survey with Trump&rsquo;s victory &mdash; as happened in 2016.
Sure enough&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/n7IDly2bnhnJlaxgDk0s4/e1c291ab39ac7efbb12ea68e8255b95f/12.10_5Bullets.png" alt="trump bump" width="540px" />
The headline number leaped eight points to 101.7, the highest reading since June 2021. After nearly three years, this figure is once again higher than its long-term average. And we do mean long-term; this survey&rsquo;s been conducted for 50 years.
The internals of the survey are equally sunny: Expectations for the economy to improve are the highest since late 2020. Expectations for higher sales are the best since late 2021.
&ldquo;Owners are particularly hopeful for tax and regulation policies that favor strong economic growth as well as relief from inflationary pressures,&rdquo; says NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Gold, Syria, Silver
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Gold is inching back toward the $2,700 level &mdash; again performing its risk-hedging role as we await the next shoe to drop in the Middle East.
Really there isn&rsquo;t that much that&rsquo;s changed about Syria since we wrote you 24 hours ago. The United States, Israel and Turkey are all bombing their respective spheres of influence inside the country &mdash; which isn&rsquo;t that different a state of affairs than before the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
Our own Jim Rickards ran down a list of the likely winners and losers for his Strategic Intelligence readers yesterday &mdash; good for Israel, bad for Iran and so on.
But he added an enormous caveat you won&rsquo;t hear from corporate media: &ldquo;Every early assessment of winners and losers may completely reverse in a year. The U.S. may find it has empowered a new Taliban. U.S. regime change operations in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine have all failed badly and left chaos or war in their wake. Syria may be no different.&rdquo;
Indeed, &ldquo;The problem now in Syria is the same as that in Iraq in 2003 after the defeat of Saddam Hussein and his largely Sunni regime,&rdquo; writes the London Independent&rsquo;s veteran Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn.
&ldquo;Removing the old elite and purging the old Saddam appointees from the state apparatus may have been democratic in one sense, but it also meant replacing Sunni with Shia which provoked a sectarian bloodbath in Iraq....&rdquo;
<a id="4"></a>
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3a5CDQ0wtqVZm7skQWsJk3/c99d8d0622694e9d4685c50d2cc26f38/TomTweet.png" alt="tom tweet" width="540px" />
Back in the markets, it&rsquo;s a familiar story of late: Gold&rsquo;s strength is not being reflected in either silver or the mining stocks &mdash; silver is back below $32 &mdash; and that&rsquo;s a sign gold will continue to struggle in the short term.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Countdown to TikTok Ban
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />With any luck, the TikTok ban will go before the Supreme Court soon.
Last week, a federal appeals court upheld the law passed by Congress and signed by President Biden: TikTok will be banned in the United States unless its Chinese parent firm can sell its U.S. operations by Jan. 19 &mdash; less than six weeks from now.
The judges bought the Justice Department&rsquo;s arguments that TikTok somehow poses a threat to U.S. national security. That&rsquo;s an assertion relying largely on secret evidence &mdash; hidden not just from you and me but also from TikTok&rsquo;s attorneys.
TikTok is used by 170 million Americans to exercise their First Amendment rights. And contrary to what you might think, fully 75% of them are of voting age. In addition, 7 million small online businesses rely on TikTok for their livelihoods.
Despite the enormous size of this constituency, Congress passed the ban last spring on the grounds that TikTok spies on its U.S. customers and feeds them propaganda. Again, there&rsquo;s no evidence to support those claims &mdash; other than secret evidence congresscritters say they were presented by the &ldquo;intelligence community&rdquo; behind closed doors.
As we&rsquo;ve said much of this year, the real reason TikTok is in the feds&rsquo; crosshairs is that it&rsquo;s one of the few platforms that&rsquo;s not under the thumb of the FBI, CIA, DHS, etc.
Yesterday, TikTok asked a federal appeals court to temporarily halt the law&rsquo;s enforcement, pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech,&rdquo; says a TikTok statement, &ldquo;and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue.&rdquo;
Yeah, based on the justices&rsquo; ruling this summer in <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/supreme-cowards">Murthy v. Missouri</a>, we don&rsquo;t share the confidence that TikTok&rsquo;s lawyers are expressing here&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Was It Something About the CEO Shooting?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />After a reader&rsquo;s vigorous denunciation yesterday for &ldquo;disgusting, offensive&rdquo; and &ldquo;one-sided&rdquo; views, we got a short note from one of our regulars.
&ldquo;This comes from a reader on the extreme left. I can tell because it is long on opinion, indignation, rhetoric, disinformation and... devoid of facts.&rdquo;
You may well be right, sir, but I still wonder what set her off.
Her note came in after <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/closer-to-crypto-capital-of-the-world">last Thursday&rsquo;s edition</a>. There were a handful of against-the-grain insights, but nothing particularly over-the-top &mdash; unless it was my defense of the casual verbiage I used to describe the circumstances surrounding the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brain Thompson.
From the beginning, I&rsquo;ve been floored by the power elite&rsquo;s hectoring tone toward the social media vibe &mdash; you know, everyday people&rsquo;s jokes about &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers,&rdquo; and the shooter being dubbed &ldquo;the adjuster.&rdquo;
After the arrest of a suspect in Pennsylvania yesterday, we got more tut-tutting from Gov. Josh Shapiro: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s no hero.&rdquo;
Well, no. But the Establishment seems to be in deep denial about the outrage currently directed against America&rsquo;s ruinously expensive crony-capitalist health care system &mdash; also a point I tried to make on Thursday. Maybe that&rsquo;s what set the reader off?
The fact is that millions of people are victims of financial extraction by this industry &mdash; no, not in the way the leftist &ldquo;free health care for all&rdquo; crowd portrays it, but so what?
We don&rsquo;t know exactly what beef the suspect had with the system &mdash; and my former colleagues in the media better get on the stick <a href="https://x.com/kenklippenstein/status/1866185122086596807">releasing his manifesto in full</a> so we the people can judge it for ourselves &mdash; but whatever his grievance, it obviously wasn&rsquo;t addressed through either legislation or litigation.
So it comes back to that old truism: When injustices aren&rsquo;t remedied via the soap box, the ballot box or the jury box&hellip; it should be no surprise when someone decides to resort to the cartridge box.
That&rsquo;s not an endorsement of Thompson&rsquo;s murder. It&rsquo;s just a recognition of reality &mdash; which is more than you&rsquo;ll get from the likes of Gov. Shapiro.
Here&rsquo;s one more recognition of reality as seen in the meme-o-sphere. And with that, we&rsquo;ll call it a day&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3sLFBHFOUF2zRMvgmWGjnT/cac22e5baeef422e8fdc1e306bae66bc/healthcare.png" alt="healthcare" width="540px" />
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

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Sometimes the best investment opportunities reward those who are patient.

Shortcut to a Miracle

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Bitcoin&rsquo;s Next Act: A Triple in 13 Months
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;I expect Bitcoin to hit $300,000 by the end of 2025,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s resident crypto evangelist James Altucher.
As you&rsquo;re likely aware, Bitcoin broke the $100,000 barrier last Wednesday &mdash; even earlier than James&rsquo; aggressive post-election forecast. (He figured $100K by Inauguration Day.)
&ldquo;The signs were all there,&rdquo; he says &mdash; &ldquo;Wall Street's growing appetite for crypto, Trump's pro-crypto stance and the flood of institutional money pouring in.&rdquo;
Let&rsquo;s home in on that last factor&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Last month, something game-changing happened,&rdquo; says James: &ldquo;Options trading began on Bitcoin ETFs.&rdquo;
Result? &ldquo;Wall Street's biggest players now have a new toy to play with, and they're not holding back. Just look at the numbers: In its first hour of trading, Bitcoin ETF options saw 73,000 contracts change hands. That's not just impressive &mdash; it's a sign of things to come.&rdquo;
Meanwhile, &ldquo;Major corporations are starting to treat Bitcoin like digital gold,&rdquo; James goes on.
He points to MicroStrategy &mdash; which just bought another $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, bringing the total value of its stash to $40.5 billion. (Yes, MSTR shares are way overvalued, as colleague Davis Wilson pointed out here last week. But that&rsquo;s not the point today&hellip;)
&ldquo;Even pharmaceutical companies are getting in on the action,&rdquo; says James. He points us to a microcap called Acurx Pharmaceuticals (ACXP) that recently announced it&rsquo;s putting $1 million of its cash into Bitcoin.
Meanwhile James reminds us that BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF alone saw inflows of $5.4 billion just last month.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> At the same time, Donald Trump&rsquo;s choice for chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Atkins, is even more crypto bullish than it seems on the surface.
It&rsquo;s not just that Atkins is co-chair of a pro-crypto lobbying group and that he&rsquo;s set to replace the notoriously anti-crypto Gary Gensler.
Under Atkins&rsquo; leadership, &ldquo;we're likely to see approval for even more cryptocurrency ETFs,&rdquo; says James &mdash; &ldquo;including ones for Solana and Ripple. The days of regulatory uncertainty are coming to an end.&rdquo;
Bottom line: &ldquo;Remember how the internet changed everything in the '90s? Cryptocurrency is having its own internet moment right now.
&ldquo;Here's what it all means for investors: We're witnessing the early stages of a historic wealth-creation event.&rdquo;
James&rsquo; Early-Stage Crypto Investor readers have already seized on some of the early moves &mdash; a 133% gain in over two months&hellip; a 484% gain in just over 13 months&hellip; and a massive 789% since last August.
But James is certain the next stage of the crypto rally will be even more lucrative. And he doesn&rsquo;t want you to miss out.
James is also certain the next stage begins tomorrow.
That&rsquo;s when a handful of giants including Bill Gates and BlackRock &ldquo;will make an unprecedented crypto move,&rdquo; says James &mdash; and for six tiny cryptos that are on his radar, they&rsquo;re liable to rise &ldquo;higher than anyone can imagine.&rdquo;
<a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2393206">Follow this link and James will show you how to seize upon crypto&rsquo;s December melt-up</a>.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Washington&rsquo;s Favorite Head-Chopping Jihadi
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Precious metals are performing their risk-hedging role now that after nearly 14 years, the Obama administration&rsquo;s regime change op in Syria is complete.
At last check gold is up nearly $40 to $2,671 and silver has rallied $1.25 to $32.19. The HUI index of mining stocks has vaulted back above the 300 level &mdash; up a solid 5.3% to 312.
Crude is likewise up big, more than 2% &mdash; now trading for $68.64.
You can read anywhere about how the Assad dynasty in Syria suddenly collapsed in a heap after more than 50 years.
What you might not have seen is that the &ldquo;liberation&rdquo; of Damascus that&rsquo;s being celebrated in corporate media is led by a guy who&rsquo;s still on Washington&rsquo;s terrorist list&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6e87J3kr5D97VgKICy2CTm/87693980e2faeb24b99f421f710465cb/MaxTweet.png" alt="max tweet" width="540px" />
For real. Back in the day, Abu Mohammad al-Julani was the leader of al-Qaida&rsquo;s Syrian faction. Before that, he fought U.S. troops in Iraq.
&ldquo;I think there are at least a couple of hundred white grave markers in U.S. national cemeteries, courtesy of this guy,&rdquo; observes Paradigm&rsquo;s energy and military-affairs expert Byron King. &ldquo;And many thousands of wounded vets, courtesy of roadside bombs, snipers, etc.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> But amid the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, the Obama administration saw an opportunity to topple Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad &mdash; long a goal of Washington&rsquo;s allies Israel and Turkey. 
And if that meant fighting on the same side as the people who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001&hellip; the Obama crew felt that was a price worth paying. Yes, they&rsquo;re head-chopping jihadis but they can be OUR head-chopping jihadis.
&ldquo;AQ [al-Qaida] is on our side in Syria,&rdquo; said a memo from Jake Sullivan to his boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That&rsquo;s the same Jake Sullivan who&rsquo;s Joe Biden&rsquo;s national security adviser. (We have WikiLeaks to thank for the fact this sordid bit of history is public.)
The war had settled down to a dull roar the last three years or so &mdash; until Julani launched an offensive late last month and Assad&rsquo;s army turned tail.
Yesterday Julani delivered a victory speech at the biggest mosque in Damascus &mdash; and declared Sharia law. Syria&rsquo;s Christian community, about 10% of the population, is looking to get the hell out.
But for the Beltway crew, it&rsquo;s all good. Julani is already promising to get along with Israel &mdash; which has moved quickly to seize a chunk of Syrian territory for itself. Turkey is doing likewise.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> To be sure, pipeline politics are at work here &mdash; as they often are in that part of the world.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/13762zd3KKfsmxbF1130Ie/062bd6524457086e141bbdfda40b6280/RobinTweet.png" alt="robin tweet" width="540px" />
Specifically it&rsquo;s about how to get bountiful natural gas from the Persian Gulf to Europe. As you can see from the map, Washington and Moscow are backing competing pipeline projects that pass through Syria. Syria under Assad was tight with Moscow for many years.
But there&rsquo;s no guarantee the Washington-backed project will come to fruition. That&rsquo;s because it&rsquo;s not just Julani&rsquo;s faction versus Assad&rsquo;s in Syria; it&rsquo;s a messy multisided civil war in which other head-chopping jihadis not aligned with Julani will want a say. ISIS, for instance &mdash; they&rsquo;re still around &mdash; could easily stage attacks on pipeline sites.
Indeed Syria might well descend into the disaster that Libya has been ever since Obama overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 &mdash; though, hopefully, without open-air slave markets.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Assad&rsquo;s ouster also potentially sets the stage for a new phase of the conflict between Washington and Moscow.
Maybe Donald Trump will wind down Washington&rsquo;s proxy war against Moscow in Ukraine &mdash; but the locus could easily shift to the Middle East.
It was sobering to listen to historian Michael Vlahos interviewed last night on John Batchelor&rsquo;s syndicated radio show.
Vlahos sees an analogy between the present moment and the run-up to World War I: Large powers like Russia and Germany blundered into circumstances in which they found themselves at the mercy of small client states (Serbia for Russia, Bulgaria for Germany).
&ldquo;If you look at the situation today,&rdquo; Vlahos says, &ldquo;the U.S. seems to have benefited from the collapse of Syria, which was always part of its policy. But it is at the mercy of Turkey and Israel, who have enormously reckless expansionist goals.&rdquo;
Those goals &ldquo;will of necessity I think bring Israel and Iran into conflict &mdash; and potentially Turkey as well &mdash; in a way that Russia will have to respond to. And it begins to look like 1914&hellip;&rdquo;
We&rsquo;ll leave it there today. We&rsquo;re sure there will be follow-on developments to pull apart in the days and weeks ahead&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Stocks Basking in Crypto&rsquo;s Glow
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The stock market is basking in crypto&rsquo;s glow, according to Paradigm&rsquo;s income-investing pro Zach Scheidt.
Bitcoin&rsquo;s rise to $100K &ldquo;shows there is a lot of enthusiasm or &lsquo;animal spirits&rsquo; in the overall market,&rdquo; says Zach &mdash; as investors big and small shift out of defensive plays and are willing to put capital to work in more risky plays, like crypto, tech and AI.
&ldquo;In other words, crypto&rsquo;s rise is a good thing for the overall bull market and indicates the trend is likely to continue, at least for the next couple of months or until something unexpected reverses the bullish sentiment in play.
&ldquo;Indeed, the Nasdaq and the S&amp;P 500 just hit record highs and I expect we&rsquo;ll see the indexes shoot even higher in the coming weeks and months.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> That said, the major indexes are taking a breather as the new week begins.
At last check, the Dow is ruler-flat&hellip; the S&amp;P 500 is down about a third of a percent&hellip; and the Nasdaq is likewise down more than a third of a percent, back below 20,000.
All the indexes are holding up well even as AI darling Nvidia is down nearly 3% on the day &mdash; after news that China has opened an antitrust investigation of the company. It seems that&rsquo;s how Beijing is reacting to Washington&rsquo;s decision last week to slap more limits on the export of high-end chips to China.
The big economic number due this week is the official inflation report, due Wednesday.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Comic Relief
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />One more thing about Syria and Abu Mohammad al-Julani before we get to the mailbag&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/RxJoL4NBuf03h0Mkuk7DJ/a5348f2e74eb6cd175ecd1b5c6127d5c/Cartoon.png" alt="cartoon" width="540px" />
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: A Different Kind of Health Insurance
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />On the subject of health insurance costs &mdash; made a hot topic by the murder of insurance executive Brian Thompson &mdash; a reader writes&hellip;
&ldquo;Marinate on this. If I have a bunch of car wrecks and tickets, my auto insurance goes up. Life insurers conduct an age verification and &lsquo;background&rsquo; check on your health to determine the rate you pay for that life insurance policy.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Soooo, why don't health insurers do the same&hellip; check my blood work every year, link my &lsquo;workout monitor&rsquo; to track my exercise and request my grocery receipts to see my food choices? If I make healthy lifestyle choices, why do I have to pay the same as some overweight, alcohol-drinking, ultra-processed food-eating customer?
&ldquo;I am a newsletter subscriber and LOVE all your content&hellip; yes, I also own crypto.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Last, a brief note of general praise, which is always welcome&hellip;
&ldquo;Always enjoy reading everything plus I get a free laugh, meaning you are a great writer and do enjoy all the great information, great sense of humor, and funny, that mostly the information is always useful and informative. Many thanks.&rdquo;
Dave responds: My, my, thank you! Your note offsets the one from the individual who says my &ldquo;comments and views are more often than not disgusting, offensive, one-sided and I don't want to be subjected to his opinions ever again.&rdquo;
If only I knew what the proverbial &ldquo;last straw&rdquo; was, but she didn&rsquo;t offer specifics. The mailbag in <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/closer-to-crypto-capital-of-the-world">Thursday&rsquo;s edition</a>? Alas, it shall forever remain a mystery&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets
P.S. There&rsquo;s no doubt Trump&rsquo;s election was the catalyst for Bitcoin&rsquo;s latest rally &mdash; just as our James Altucher predicted in October.
Now James is anticipating a new crypto catalyst &mdash; one that Trump himself might not see coming. And it&rsquo;s happening tomorrow.
&ldquo;If this event plays out like I believe it will,&rdquo; James says, &ldquo;this could be even bigger than his election.&rdquo;
Again, we&rsquo;re talking about something happening in less than 24 hours.
If you didn&rsquo;t heed James in October, now&rsquo;s your second chance. And he says it might be your last chance &ndash; <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2393206">for reasons that will become clear when you click here</a>.

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Wait till you see James Altucher’s next target...

After $100K, What’s Next for Bitcoin?

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“It’s useful to revisit the election outcome with reference to how we did in terms of our forecasts and analyses for readers..."

Nailed It

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Rug Pulls and $100K Watch Parties
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We have a close contest for the craziest crypto story of the day. First, following up from an item we had here on Monday&hellip;
The memecoin HAWK &mdash; a project of &ldquo;Hawk Tuah Girl&rdquo; Haliey Welch &mdash; launched on schedule yesterday, and it went about as expected&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5X0Mwd2WIYkIw8UGykZX5H/461f4584372c642bc5ed236a2d845392/clip_tweet.png" alt="hawk tuah tweet" />
In a &ldquo;Readers added context&rdquo; note on X, we&rsquo;re told that &ldquo;96% of the token supply has been sniped and is slowly being sold on the community. Buying this highly speculative coin might result in loss and high due diligence is recommended.&rdquo;
No, really?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Meanwhile, the BBC informs us that as Bitcoin broke the $100,000 barrier yesterday, &ldquo;millions of viewers even tuned in to online watch parties.&rdquo;
Yes, really&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/NNQS6EVVIsb4RPmZ6LSXg/90539faaf76c705014af1472bbe0d687/chris_tweet.png" alt="bitcoin tweet" />
There appears to be a fairly clear cause-and-effect at work: The flagship crypto was mired near $95,000 yesterday when word came through about Donald Trump&rsquo;s choice to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He&rsquo;s Paul Atkins &mdash; who served as an aide to two SEC chairs in the early 1990s and later was an SEC commissioner during the Dubya Bush administration.
His pro-crypto credentials are impeccable &mdash; he&rsquo;s co-chair of the Token Alliance, the lobbying arm for an outfit called the The Digital Chamber (formerly the Chamber of Digital Commerce).
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />To be sure, Atkins is no fan of the jihad waged against crypto firms by the current SEC chair, Gary Gensler.
&ldquo;Atkins and other critics say Gensler&rsquo;s approach was too rigid for cryptocurrencies designed to run over peer-to-peer computer networks,&rdquo; says The Wall Street Journal. &ldquo;The SEC&rsquo;s approach drove increasing amounts of crypto-market activity toward Asia and Europe, where governments created regulatory frameworks designed specifically for digital assets.&rdquo;
During a podcast interview last year, Atkins said, &ldquo;If the SEC were more accommodating and would deal straightforwardly with these firms, it would be a lot better to have things happen here in the United States.&rdquo;
Clearly that&rsquo;s an attitude aligned with Trump&rsquo;s stated intention to make the United States &ldquo;the crypto capital of the planet.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />The Plot Thickens
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The plot thickens in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 
Corporate media are chock-a-block with reports that bullet casings found at the scene in New York were inscribed with words starting with letter &ldquo;D.&rdquo; Depending on who you want to believe, they said &ldquo;delay,&rdquo; &ldquo;deny,&rdquo; &ldquo;defend&rdquo; and/or &ldquo;depose.&rdquo;
On the one hand, three of those words echo the name of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Delay-Deny-Defend-Insurance-Companies/dp/1591843154" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a book</a> about insurance companies that hose their customers who file claims. Which reinforces the narrative that Thompson was done in by a disgruntled UnitedHealthcare customer.
On the other hand&hellip; Bloomberg <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-care/unitedhealth-chair-execs-sold-102m-stock-doj-probe-became-public" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in April that Thompson was one of four senior executives with UnitedHealth Group who sold UNH shares during a four-month span before a federal antitrust investigation was made public.
Thompson sold shares and exercised options on Feb. 16, netting him $15.1 million. Less than two weeks later, The Wall Street Journal broke the news of the investigation.
As a result, Thompson was sued in May for insider trading by a pension fund that owned UNH shares &mdash; as independent reporter Ken Klippenstein <a href="https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/lawsuit-against-murdered-ceo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>. The suit alleges that the City of Hollywood Firefighters&rsquo; Pension Fund of Hollywood, Florida &ldquo;suffered damages as a result of the violations&rdquo; of federal securities laws.
So now there&rsquo;s all manner of online speculation about whether Thompson was cooperating with the feds &mdash; which would suggest the killing was aimed at shutting him up.
Whatever the case, somewhere out there the killer is undoubtedly getting a thrill out of all this.
Meanwhile, the murder has brought forth still another crazy crypto story: The bullet-casing inscriptions inspired the launch of a memecoin called &ldquo;Deny. Defend. Depose.&rdquo; &mdash; promoted with the surveillance-camera screenshot from Starbucks&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/22xPlYpmJ0OXJiYvx6HaTW/0a5ffd6ca582d98a167a9a8d4e5ce3e1/crime_stoppers_ddd.png" alt="DDD" />
&ldquo;Fortunately, it didn&rsquo;t really take off,&rdquo; Paradigm crypto analyst Chris Campbell tells us. &ldquo;752 people are still holding and hoping it does&hellip;&rdquo;
For whatever it&rsquo;s worth, shares of UNH have given up all of yesterday&rsquo;s gains and then some, down 3% at last check.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Elsewhere in the markets, the major U.S. stock indexes are just barely in the red after notching record closes yesterday.
Precious metals are losing ground, gold at $2,640 and silver at $31.14. Crude is up a half percent to $68.87 after the OPEC+ nations decided to delay a planned production increase by three months.
At last check, Bitcoin&rsquo;s grip on $100K is loosening just a bit, down to $100,838.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Poland Is Stacking
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We always knew that gold was a disaster hedge &mdash; but not necessarily like this.
&ldquo;Poland was the world&rsquo;s largest gold buyer in the second and third quarters of 2024,&rdquo; reports the Central European Times website.
Poland&rsquo;s gold stash now totals 420 metric tons &mdash; good enough to lift it into the top 10 gold-holding nations in the world.
➢ By the way, the United States is still No. 1 &mdash; at least officially. Unofficially, China&rsquo;s holdings might be higher.
The head of Poland&rsquo;s central bank, Adam Glapinski, says the country&rsquo;s gold is kept &ldquo;around a dozen locations&hellip; where our reserves are safe.
&ldquo;Gold will retain its value even when someone cuts off the power to the global financial system, destroying traditional assets based on electronic accounting records.&rdquo;
Hmmm&hellip; As you might be aware, Poland is lending considerable aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Clearly the government is loading up on gold in the event of Russian retaliation.
But more Russia-friendly countries in central Europe are also accumulating gold: For instance, Hungary&rsquo;s stash now totals 110 metric tons.
And Serbia&rsquo;s gold stash has tripled since 2012. The governor of that country&rsquo;s central bank, Jorgovanka Tabakovic, says gold is essential &ldquo;in times of global turbulences, especially in geopolitical conflicts and periods of high inflation [and] in recent years we&rsquo;ve seen both factors at play&rdquo;.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />That&rsquo;s Not a Gold Bar. THAT&rsquo;s a Gold Bar
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Behold, the world&rsquo;s biggest gold bar&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/57VAai9ECHw7eBT7Zn23AM/ce90931f76e7db5de391c79d4330595e/gold_bar_tweet.png" alt="Largest Gold Bar" />
Emirates Minting Factory &mdash; a privately held mint in the United Arab Emirates &mdash; recently took the wraps off a gold bar weighing 300 kilograms.
That&rsquo;s 9,645 troy ounces &mdash; which at today&rsquo;s prices works out to over $25.4 million.
It&rsquo;s good enough for entry into the Guinness World Records. The Emirates bar is 20% bigger than the previous record-sized bar, made by Japan&rsquo;s Mitsubishi Materials Corp. in 2005.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: Murder in Manhattan
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />A reader writes to take issue with the colloquial language your editor used <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/when-the-trump-trade-goes-sour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in yesterday&rsquo;s edition</a> to describe the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
&ldquo;Your banter was out of line. You are talking about a human being, American citizen, husband, father and a friend of many &mdash; NOT a Hollywood movie.&rdquo;
Dave responds: Perspective, please.
I wouldn&rsquo;t use language like that if the victim were a small-town shopkeeper or the owner of a big-city bodega.
But given the nature of his position &mdash; CEO for a major division of a $544 billion publicly traded company &mdash; Brian Thompson thrust himself into the public eye and opened himself up to public scrutiny.
Like it or not, he was a major figure in one of the most parasitical industries in these United States &mdash; a crony capitalist cartel that is, to borrow Jefferon&rsquo;s phrase from the Declaration of Independence, eating out our substance.
Health care took up about 6.9% of U.S. GDP in 1970. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/184968/us-health-expenditure-as-percent-of-gdp-since-1960/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In 2022, it took up 17.3%</a>. Would anyone seriously argue that we&rsquo;re getting 2&frac12; times better &ldquo;health outcomes&rdquo; now than in 1970?
Per capita health care spending in this country now <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita" target="_blank" rel="noopener">totals</a> $12,555 per year &mdash; one-third higher than the next-highest country, Switzerland. Would anyone seriously argue American health care is at least one-third better than anywhere else?
UNH&rsquo;s share price has appreciated 20X since passage of Obamacare in 2009. Is that because UNH has served humanity 20X better?
So yeah&hellip; When a major insurance executive is killed by someone whose MO lends a certain <a href="https://x.com/katrosenfield/status/1864485105072222548" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&ldquo;John Wick-meets-Erin Brockovich&rdquo; atmosphere</a> to the whole thing&hellip; I might use more colorful verbiage than I would otherwise.
But in no way does that trivialize what took place&hellip;

shutterstock 2158050743 (1)

Closer to “Crypto Capital” of the World

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Trump, Tariffs and the Stock Market
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;The stock market and the economy aren&rsquo;t the same thing.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s a cliche&hellip; but the reason you hear it so often is that it&rsquo;s true.
&ldquo;Many pundits argue that the fluctuations of the major indexes tasked with tracking the performance of the country&rsquo;s biggest companies have little impact on the average American,&rdquo; says an article at Investopedia, &ldquo;as the majority of shares trade hands among the super-wealthy.&rdquo;
Word. If the stock market truly represented the well-being of most everyday Americans&hellip; and if most everyday Americans vote their pocketbook&hellip; well, with the major averages setting one record after another this year, you&rsquo;d expect the Democrats to win a resounding victory, right?
Obviously, that&rsquo;s not what happened.
But what does that mean for your stock holdings &mdash; however modest they might be relative to &ldquo;the super-wealthy&rdquo;?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Over the years, Donald Trump has been of multiple minds on this issue: To what extent does he believe the stock market reflects on his economic performance in office?
During a debate with Hillary Clinton in September 2016, he sounded the following alarm: &ldquo;We're in a bubble right now. And the only thing that looks good is the stock market, but if you raise interest rates even a little bit, that's going to come crashing down. We are in a big, fat, ugly bubble. And we better be awfully careful.&rdquo;
Of course, that was at a time when almost no one expected Trump to win &mdash; least of all Trump himself.
Then Trump became the proverbial dog that caught the car. For the duration of his presidency, he sought to keep that &ldquo;big, fat, ugly bubble&rdquo; inflated for as long as possible &mdash; mostly by jawboning the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> On the eve of Trump&rsquo;s second term, he&rsquo;s still focused on the stock market&rsquo;s performance &mdash; if this morning&rsquo;s Wall Street Journal is to be believed.
The paper has an update on the state of play with the top economic posts in a new Trump administration: It appears Robert Lighthizer &mdash; who was U.S. trade representative in Trump&rsquo;s first term, and deputy U.S. trade representative under Ronald Reagan &mdash; will be shut out of a senior role.
That&rsquo;s not altogether surprising if you recall what Jim Rickards said in this space on Nov. 19: &ldquo;Treasury secretary is the only position likely to interest Lighthizer at this stage of his career.&rdquo;
But the treasury secretary job went instead to hedge fund manager Scott Bessent. And the position of commerce secretary went to a Wall Street CEO, Howard Lutnick.
As the Journal puts it: &ldquo;Trump, his advisers said, was more interested in New York financiers for top economic jobs, and he expressed concerns that a choice without Wall Street chops could spook the markets.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> So Trump doesn&rsquo;t want to &ldquo;spook&rdquo; the markets?
We won&rsquo;t automatically assume that&rsquo;s true: After all, this is corporate media relying on the usual anonymous &ldquo;people familiar with the matter.&rdquo;
But if it is true, it suggests Trump might not follow through on his aggressive tariff agenda.
Our recovering investment banker Sean Ring says as much in <a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/trump-throws-brics">today&rsquo;s </a><a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/trump-throws-brics">Rude Awakening</a>: An across-the-board tariff of 20% would inevitably hit the share price of American multinationals. It&rsquo;s unlikely they could pass along all of their higher costs to consumers &mdash; so thay&rsquo;d have to eat at least some of those costs themselves.
That could be a quick 5&ndash;10% hit to the S&amp;P 500.
The &ldquo;Trump trade&rdquo; would quickly go sour.
&ldquo;While some domestic-focused sectors, like utilities and health care, might be more insulated,&rdquo; says Sean, &ldquo;the broad impact of such tariffs would weigh heavily on investor sentiment and market performance.&rdquo;
Sean says there&rsquo;s precedent from Trump&rsquo;s first term: Amid growing trade tensions (and rising interest rates), the market took a quick 20% tumble from all-time highs during the autumn of 2018. But the bear market was short-lived, and the S&amp;P reclaimed record levels by the spring and summer of 2019.
So maybe Trump would be willing to weather that again &mdash; especially now that he&rsquo;ll be more focused on his &ldquo;legacy&rdquo; and not on winning another term.
Sorry we can&rsquo;t offer a more definitive forecast than this. We&rsquo;re just telling you about the breadcrumbs we&rsquo;re following &mdash; context for headlines you might see in the weeks and months ahead.
When those crumbs lead to actionable advice, you&rsquo;ll be the first to know.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Echoes of 2008 as a CEO Is Gunned Down
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Mr. Market can be strange. A top executive of a company is shot and killed in a targeted hit &mdash; and shares are up 1.3% on the day.
We speak of the gunshot in New York this morning that killed Brian Thompson, the 50-year-old CEO of UnitedHealthcare &mdash; a unit of the colossus UnitedHealth Group (UNH).
Police say they know enough to call it &ldquo;a brazen, targeted attack&rdquo; &mdash; but as of this writing, the suspect is still at large.
Nothing official about a motive yet&hellip; but if you&rsquo;re like a lot of people, your first reaction probably was: Oh, is the perp someone who was screwed out of coverage for a catastrophic event?
Certainly that&rsquo;s the vibe on the wallstreetbets Reddit board: &ldquo;Are the poors finally rising up?&rdquo; says one post. &ldquo;At least the right people are being targeted,&rdquo; says a reply.
Hmmm&hellip; Shades of the sentiment that greeted the bailed-out banks and other Wall Street firms during the 2008 financial crisis&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2KL6L0KLEyceWXpM8Xo6dP/51bf4c881de154711622d67a30f20ec2/Jump.png" alt="jump" width="450px" />
One thing&rsquo;s for sure: Someone went to a lot of trouble to off this guy. It would have been fairly simple to pop him any old day as he was leaving his house in a leafy suburb of Minneapolis.
Instead, the gunman waited until Thompson ventured to Manhattan &mdash; and killed him hours before he was set to deliver an investor-day presentation. Maximum impact &mdash; except in UNH&rsquo;s share price.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> As for the rest of the market, all the major U.S. indexes are in record territory.
The big gainer is the Nasdaq, up 0.9% to 19,657 at last check. The S&amp;P is the laggard, up a third of a percent to 6,071.
The commodity complex is quiet &mdash; gold a few pennies shy of $2,650, silver at $31.32, crude at $69.34. Bitcoin sits a little over $95,000.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Martial Law and Market Disruption
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> South Korea&rsquo;s benchmark stock index, the KOSPI, shed a modest 1.44% today after it turned out that martial law lasted all of six hours.
When we left you yesterday, it wasn&rsquo;t certain the country&rsquo;s stock market would open for a new day. President Yoon Suk Yeol had told his citizens that the country&rsquo;s opposition parties were undermining &ldquo;the constitutional order&rdquo; and possibly in cahoots with North Korea.
What followed after we hit the &ldquo;send&rdquo; button can be summarized thus&hellip;
<blockquote>Yoon: I forbid any political activity and I forbid the parliament from meeting.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Parliament: Yeah, we&rsquo;re meeting anyway and we&rsquo;re voting unanimously to lift your martial law order.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Yoon: Uhhh&hellip; OK.</blockquote>
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/VFWL24xsSTUYFiI6jnVKL/e5abd19860652ca13021cfca858fdbad/MichaelTweet.png" alt="michael tweet" width="450px" />
The government is still promising &ldquo;unlimited&rdquo; liquidity to prevent any market disruptions. No sign of disruption yet &mdash; but this episode won&rsquo;t exactly inspire confidence in foreign investors, will it?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> It&rsquo;s worth taking a moment to contemplate what all this means for war or peace on the Korean Peninsula &mdash; especially with Trump&rsquo;s return to the White House in view.
As you might recall, Trump met more than once during his first term with North Korea&rsquo;s tubby tyrant Kim Jong Un. Clueless Western media outlets said it was another instance of Trump &ldquo;cozying up to dictators.&rdquo;
In reality &mdash; and as we reported at the time &mdash; the biggest driver of the peace process on the Korean Peninsula wasn&rsquo;t Trump or Kim, but rather South Korea&rsquo;s president at the time, Moon Jae-In.
Every indication is that Trump&rsquo;s national security adviser John Bolton sabotaged that peace process &mdash; issuing new demands out of the blue.
Whatever progress was made stalled out well before Trump left office in early 2021 and Moon left office in mid-2022.
Moon&rsquo;s successor, the hapless coup-monger Yoon, has been much more hard-line when it comes to North Korea &mdash; a stance backed by the Biden administration.
Washington and Seoul have restarted major war games &mdash; and last year, Biden sent a U.S.-armed nuclear submarine to dock in South Korea for the first time since 1981.
Yoon made a point of phoning Trump after Trump&rsquo;s reelection last month &mdash; but at this point it seems Yoon faces either impeachment or resignation.
To be continued&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Will the DOGE Recommend an End to Time Change?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Oh, please, please tell me this is true&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/pWGZEWfJwq26T2DnDySOD/87c84951d1eb2369cbee18e8e3e93bd8/unusual_whales.png" alt="unusual whales tweet" width="450px" />
It seems there&rsquo;s been some chatter about time change on X in recent days. At one point, Elon Musk replied, &ldquo;Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!&rdquo;
Musk&rsquo;s partner at the DOGE, Vivek Ramaswamy, chimed in that daylight time is &ldquo;inefficient &amp; easy to change.&rdquo;
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not clear if moving away from the practice would be something supported under a Trump administration,&rdquo; says Forbes, &ldquo;but to do so would require an act of Congress and approval by the president.&rdquo;
We&rsquo;ll leave it there for today, pending further developments. If you want to see what folly time change is both for human well-being and economic sanity, I refer you to <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-secret-history-of-time-change">this back issue of our </a><a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-secret-history-of-time-change">5 Bullets</a> from November 2023.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: Tariffs, Nukes
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> After our <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/buy-sell-hold#2">initial reaction</a> to Donald Trump&rsquo;s tariff announcement last week, one of our regulars chimes in&hellip;
&ldquo;The tariffs are a negotiating tool &mdash; they are not intended to be applied. Rather they are the incentive to do something about illegal migrants using their countries to charge across the U.S. border. If you deal with this, there won't be any tariffs to affect your business as usual.
&ldquo;I just wonder why people and business leaders have such a hard time understanding this simple solution. A storm in a teapot?
&ldquo;I am much more worried about the specter of nuclear war that the idiots in D.C. and Europe seem to be intentionally trying to bring upon you and me.&rdquo;
Dave responds: Agreed on the last point. But as for the &ldquo;negotiating tool&rdquo;...
Up until now, tariffs served one of two purposes &mdash; either generating revenue for the government, or &ldquo;leveling the playing field&rdquo; for favored industries.
But using tariffs, or the threat thereof, to stanch the flow of migrants &mdash; or drugs? That&rsquo;s novel.
I&rsquo;m not sure the rest of the world will take too kindly to that. Again, I commend Sean Ring&rsquo;s wide-ranging edition of <a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/trump-throws-brics">today&rsquo;s </a><a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/trump-throws-brics">Rude Awakening</a>&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;With regard to the reader's comments about trying to guess when and why Putin/Zelenskyy/Biden will set off WWIII, may I suggest that world wars do not start instantaneously,&rdquo; writes our final correspondent today.
&ldquo;Despite all other factors and provocations, the only real harbinger of the start of said war is when the price of gold makes a &lsquo;limit up&rsquo; move for, say, three days in a row. Certain people, not just a few, will be in the know, and will try to capitalize on it causing such action.
&ldquo;Only when this actually happens is it time to head for the hills.&rdquo;
Dave: Hmmm&hellip; I&rsquo;m genuinely curious about whether your thesis bears out &mdash; but it&rsquo;s not as if we have much of a data set to work with here.
The gold price was fixed at $20.67 an ounce at the time of World War I and $35 at the time of World War II &mdash; so we can&rsquo;t use the previous world wars as a guidepost.
Nor can we look to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, since gold was still fixed at $35 an ounce up until the &ldquo;Nixon shock&rdquo; of 1971.
So all we&rsquo;ve got, really, is the &ldquo;Able Archer&rdquo; scare of 1983 &mdash; an episode we recalled <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/ai-nukes-and-gold#2">earlier this year</a> with the help of Jim Rickards.
Jim says based on now-declassified documents the U.S. intelligence community definitely tracks the movements of physical gold around the world as a precursor to nuclear attack.
But it&rsquo;s too hard to say based on this one episode that a price spike was associated with the very real possibility of nuclear war breaking out in September 1983.
While crashing deadline &mdash; actually, I&rsquo;ve totally blown deadline today &mdash; I can&rsquo;t pull up a daily chart of gold prices back then. But on a monthly basis, gold fell steadily throughout the second half of that year&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

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Donald Trump has been of multiple minds on this issue: To what extent does he believe the stock market reflects on his economic performance in office?

When the Trump Trade Goes Sour

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />From Princess Leia&rsquo;s Lips to Donald Trump&rsquo;s Ears?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> When I saw Donald Trump issue the following threat over the weekend, a classic line from the original Star Wars movie came to mind&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1H6hFj3s3mfamXEPPxBiPF/347acc8a1be4c6e8ea7f6cfc756b33dc/TrumpTweet.png" alt="Trump Tweet" width="540px" />
Before we get to that line of dialogue, here&rsquo;s some essential background if you&rsquo;re not up to speed&hellip;
The BRICS is a grouping of nine nations comprising 43% of the world&rsquo;s population&hellip; 28% of global economic output&hellip; and 29% of global oil production.
The core members of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were joined this year by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia and Iran.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Much of this group &mdash; certainly Russia, China and Iran &mdash; have long been the targets of U.S. sanctions or other forms of economic warfare.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, the Biden administration responded with unprecedented economic sanctions &mdash; freezing the dollar-based assets of Russia&rsquo;s central bank.
Other governments around the world &mdash; especially those not on friendly terms with Washington &mdash; looked around and wondered if they might be next.
One immediate response was for these nations&rsquo; central banks to load up on gold. It&rsquo;s no coincidence that gold&rsquo;s price has soared from roughly $1,800 in early 2022 to well over $2,600 now.
In the meantime, the BRICS have taken halting steps toward establishing a common currency. To date, they&rsquo;ve only got so far as smoothing out the process of payments among member nations.
Trump is essentially saying: This far, and no farther. You will not challenge the dollar&rsquo;s role as the globe&rsquo;s reserve currency.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The line that comes to mind here is from Princess Leia: &ldquo;The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.&rdquo;
Because it&rsquo;s not just Biden&rsquo;s Russia sanctions at issue here. It&rsquo;s also Trump&rsquo;s Iran sanctions.
&ldquo;If Trump&rsquo;s first term proved anything,&rdquo; writes the foreign policy analyst Daniel Larison, &ldquo;it is that other states cannot be so easily intimidated through economic warfare.
&ldquo;Pressure usually provokes defiance and resistance. When the targeted country is one that has a history of being bullied or attacked by the U.S., it is even more likely that a pressure campaign will blow up in Washington&rsquo;s face.
&ldquo;In the case of Iran, &lsquo;maximum pressure&rsquo; caused an expansion of Iran&rsquo;s nuclear program, increased tensions, greater regional instability and attacks on U.S. troops in the region. It very nearly resulted in a war.
&ldquo;The U.S. has continued waging the same economic war under Biden, and Iran&rsquo;s nuclear program is now more advanced than it has ever been. By any measure, &lsquo;maximum pressure&rsquo; has made everything worse.&rdquo;
So now what, with Trump returning to office?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;The &lsquo;mighty U.S. dollar&rsquo; is apparently so &lsquo;mighty&rsquo; that you need to threaten countries so they don&rsquo;t abandon it,&rdquo; says an arch tweet from the internet entrepreneur Arnaud Bertrand.
&ldquo;BRICS countries should totally take him to his word and go ahead with this: 100% tariffs on BRICS products would actually further undermine the dollar. It'd reduce demand for it due to reduced trade, and it'd cause significant inflation in the U.S., also negative for the dollar.
&ldquo;This is akin to saying &lsquo;if you try to undermine the dollar, I'll do it as well.&rsquo;"
Trump&rsquo;s heart might be in the right place&hellip; but he&rsquo;s swimming upstream against the current of history.
Even if punitive measures against Russia, Iran, etc. weren&rsquo;t backfiring, the fact is that reserve currencies have a limited shelf life.
Sometime in the 21st century the dollar will lose its role as the globe&rsquo;s reserve currency &mdash; as the British pound did in the 20th century, the French franc in the 19th, the Dutch guilder in the 18th and so on.
The best defense will likely be gold. Certainly that&rsquo;s been the case so far in the dollar&rsquo;s slow-motion dethronement.
Probably a slug of Bitcoin, too &mdash; just in case younger generations gravitate toward a store of value that&rsquo;s digital.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Backsliding to Third-World Status
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> OK, who had &ldquo;Martial Law in South Korea&rdquo; on their 2024 bingo card?
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3tN2DvOHAWYFfZNN8eSVju/f5b9e1262fd329c7599ae9643eb8b440/RaylanTweet.png" alt="Raylan Tweet" width="540px" />
Shortly before U.S. markets opened today, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol took to late-night TV &mdash; declaring martial law and labeling opposition parties as &ldquo;shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people&rdquo; because&hellip; well, apparently because the opposition wouldn&rsquo;t play ball on a 2025 budget.
You can&rsquo;t make this stuff up.
Yoon&rsquo;s announcement came complete with a destroying-democracy-in-order-to-save-it vibe. Protests, political parties and the National Assembly itself are banned &mdash; all to &ldquo;protect the constitutional order of freedom.&rdquo;
Oh, &ldquo;fake news&rdquo; is banned too because of course it is.
Whelp, South Korea&rsquo;s experiment with parliamentary democracy lasted 37 years. During that time it became an honest-to-God first-world country. Nice while it lasted.
It&rsquo;s uncertain whether South Korea&rsquo;s stock market will open for business tomorrow. (Seoul is 14 hours ahead of New York.) The government is promising &ldquo;unlimited liquidity&rdquo; to prop up markets. Gee, what could go wrong?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The South Korean won has tumbled 2.3% against the U.S. dollar, and the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) is down 6% on the day &mdash; but that&rsquo;s the extent of the market impact we see so far.
The out-of-nowhere jolt to geopolitical tensions has propelled crude 2.2% higher to $69.61 a barrel &mdash; but oil&rsquo;s jump might also reflect the fact that the &ldquo;ceasefire&rdquo; in Lebanon for which Joe Biden took much credit last week looks like a sick joke now.
Gold is flat at $2,637, although silver has gained a quarter to $30.74.
As for the major U.S. stock indexes, they&rsquo;re all in the red today &mdash; but by no more than a third of a percent. The S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq both notched record closes yesterday.
&ldquo;With just about four trading weeks left in 2024, we have been gifted by one of those magical markets that overdelivers on momentum moves and breakouts,&rdquo; Greg Guenthner tells his Trading Desk readers. &ldquo;That means we&rsquo;ll need to toss some of our common sense out the window. Many ideas that the market would deem &lsquo;too stupid to float&rsquo; are going to do well in this type of environment. Embrace it!&rdquo;
Sean Ring agrees in today&rsquo;s Rude Awakening &mdash; saying the S&amp;P 500 is setting up to soar from 6,000-ish now to 6,580. &ldquo;Although the financial plumbing may have many problems,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;the charts give zero indication to sell. This is a relentless bull market.&rdquo;
Speaking of which&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />A December to Remember
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Historically we are big fans of the concept of seasonality &mdash; the idea that the stock market acts differently at different times of year,&rdquo; says Paradigm trading pro Enrique Abeyta.
&ldquo;Some consider this &lsquo;voodoo&rsquo; but these are relationships where we have consistently made money for the last three decades.
&ldquo;We mention it because we are going into the STRONGEST time of the year &mdash; December.
&ldquo;On average, the stock market is up just about 60% of all months. For December, though, the stock market is up 75% of the time. It is also up double what it would be during a normal month.
&ldquo;In election years it is up 80% of the time. We think because folks had been on the sideline waiting for the dust to clear.
&ldquo;Finally, when the stock market is up big going into December &mdash; up 20% or more &mdash; it was up 90% of the time in recent years.
&ldquo;Even the few times the market is down in December in these years, it is not down much.
&ldquo;December might be a time for winding down on a personal basis but for trading we think it is a time to push on the gas.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Elsewhere, Bitcoin took a spill below $94,000 for the first time in nearly a week today &mdash; and while it&rsquo;s too soon to declare cause-and-effect, this happened&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5HCF3K89iNYhkOcuzd0TNt/0ada3a441f98f7f28d21b2fcda790d31/WatcherTweet.png" alt="Watcher Tweet" width="540px" />
Well, that&rsquo;d be one way for the outgoing Biden administration to thwart any plans by the incoming Trump administration to create a Bitcoin reserve, no?
If cause and effect is at work, it&rsquo;s short-lived: The flagship crypto is back to $95,540.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Comic Relief
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> We&rsquo;re not sure if this is a commentary on AI &mdash; but regardless, this takeoff on 2001: A Space Odyssey is a hoot&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/96oT2ygztbOIZqQKtghkL/71166e3aaf57afc4dc8bfd64b0cf43f3/AdamTweet.png" alt="adam Tweet" width="540px" />
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Nuclear War? No Worries&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Please stow the doom p0rn,&rdquo; a reader writes after <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-ukrainian-missile-crisis">Friday&rsquo;s edition</a>.
&ldquo;Very obviously Sleepy Joe's release of the ATACMS was nothing more than him [or his handlers] saying, &lsquo;I'm still in CHARGE.&rsquo; Nice, giving Trump an out.&rdquo;
Concurs another: &ldquo;Dave, take a deep breath! We are not on the verge of WWIII. Why on earth would Putin launch a nuclear attack anywhere, when he knows Trump will take office in two months and basically give him anything he wants?
&ldquo;You are failing to see the situation for anything more than it is, which is to give Zelenskyy more bargaining power when it comes to a ceasefire or end to the invasion.
&ldquo;It's this type of fearmongering (not the first time) that I see in your publication that has made me decide to not renew my subscription.&rdquo;
Dave responds: You&rsquo;re dumping your paid subscription because you&rsquo;re put off by something in a free bonus publication? OK.
Anyway, I&rsquo;m seeing a lot of this line of argument on social media &mdash; especially after Trump appointed retired Gen. Keith Kellogg as his &ldquo;special envoy&rdquo; for Russia/Ukraine.
It seems Kellogg&rsquo;s plan to end the war in Ukraine is&hellip; get this&hellip; to continue arming Ukraine!
"Biden should have provided Ukraine with the weapons it needed to win quickly, but instead, he was afraid of potential Russian 'escalation&rsquo;,&rdquo; he wrote in late 2023.
Anticipating a second Trump term, Kellogg wrote, &ldquo;Trump might very well remove the Biden-era constraints on arms transfers and give Ukraine the weapons it needs to win, including long-range weapons to strike within Crimea and Russia. If faced with the prospect of a costly military defeat, Putin may very well prefer negotiations."
Ah yes, and then Trump the consummate dealmaker will present Putin an offer he can&rsquo;t refuse.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> This line of thought ignores the proverbial elephant in the room: For all the bravery and sacrifice on the part of Ukrainians&hellip;
Russia. Has. Already. Won.
Russian victory in December 2024 is as certain as Allied victory was in December 1944. Yeah, Ukraine might have one more Battle-of-the-Bulge last hurrah &mdash; but that&rsquo;s it.
&ldquo;The war on the ground is moving rapidly in Russia&rsquo;s favor,&rdquo; Jim Rickards wrote his Strategic Intelligence readers yesterday.
&ldquo;Russian forces are advancing across the entire battlefront from Vuhledar and Kurakhove in the south to Chasiv Yar in the center and to Vovchans&rsquo;k in the north. Russia Army Group North (&lsquo;Sever&rsquo;) is also annihilating the Ukrainian invasion force in the Kursk region of Russia around Sudzha.
&ldquo;Once certain intermediate villages and logistical hubs are secured, there is little standing in the way of Russian conquest of major Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa.
&ldquo;Russia will effectively control all of Ukraine east of the Dnipro River and the entire Black Sea and Sea of Azov coastlines from Rostov-on-Don to Odesa. Ukraine will be left as a landlocked rump state operating on Russian terms.
&ldquo;Due to dishonest U.S. media, the American people are not prepared for any of these outcomes.&rdquo;
So yes, Putin probably won&rsquo;t rise to Biden&rsquo;s bait in the next 49 days; reliable analysts like Gilbert Doctorow who follow Russian-language media have said as much since my write-up on Friday.
But Gen. Kellogg is still laboring under the delusion that the war will end on terms other than those dictated by Putin&hellip; well, it could be a bumpy early 2025.
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

5 bullets hero Human hand breaking brick wall. 

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When I saw Donald Trump issue a threat over the weekend, a classic movie line came to mind…

Trump Tightens His Grip

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There’s a money-and-markets angle to the Hunter Biden pardon — even if it’s not obvious on the surface.